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House passes bill restoring missing chancery-court seat in Grenada County
Summary
The Mississippi House passed House Bill 1 to correct last year's judicial redistricting by restoring a previously omitted chancery-court seat in Grenada County. Lawmakers adopted an amendment adjusting candidate qualifying deadlines and approved the bill by voice and roll call (116-0).
The Mississippi House passed House Bill 1 on the floor to restore a chancery-court seat that lawmakers said was unintentionally omitted from last year's judicial redistricting map.
The vice chairman of the House Judiciary, Elections and Delayed Bills (JED B) committee, who called up the measure for final passage, told colleagues the bill "simply takes the redistricting bill for judicial redistricting we did last year and makes a minor correction" by adding back the missing chancery-court seat in the Grenada County area. He said the change remedies an omission made during the prior redistricting process.
The vice chairman introduced a technical amendment to set the qualifying deadline for candidates for the restored seat: qualifying would be Feb. 2 if the governor signs the bill before Jan. 23; otherwise the qualifying deadline would be May 1. "This amendment simply . . . says the qualifying deadline for this seat will be February 2 as long as the governor signs this bill before January 23. Otherwise, the qualifying deadline will be May 1," he said. Members adopted the amendment by voice vote.
Representative Miss Scott of Jones County asked whether a separate technical amendment would address precinct changes affecting a former colleague and whether the bill would correct 13 precincts. The vice chairman said those precinct corrections are not part of this measure and that Judge Wooten's district will be corrected separately after mapping staff verify census blocks.
After debate and the amendment vote, the House moved to final passage. The clerk reported a roll-call tally of 116 yays and 0 nays, and the Speaker announced that House Bill 1 passed.
The vice chairman said he had spoken with the governor's office and expected the governor to sign the correction; he presented that as his expectation, not a guaranteed outcome.
The bill returns to the governor for signature and, if signed, will trigger the qualifying deadlines described in the adopted amendment.
