The voters have spoken...

I'm not going to finish Mo Udall's famous quote after he got voted out of office.  The fact of the matter is, yesterday's election was handled about as well as can be expected.  I think the candidates generally behaved admirably under difficult circumstances.  Judge Thomas polled about 28,000 votes, and the write-in candidates collectively polled 20,000 votes.  The biggest wins for Judge Thomas came in Pearl River County and Lamar County, where he beat all the rest of us by a 2-1 margin.  The write-ins only carried Forrest County.

I want to thank every one who voted yesterday, especially those who voted for me and those who supported me.  I will be running for judge again.  The governor will now be appointing a chancellor for the district, and we will have a special election during next year's general election.  We may in fact be looking at what will be the most expensive judicial election in Mississippi history next year.  Deborah Gambrell is already planning her run.  Tom Bates is retiring from Justice Court and will not be running next year.  Gay Polk-Payton will be throwing her hat in the ring for Justice Court.  I'll keep working hard for my clients and working hard with my constituents and fellow candidates.  Hopefully, we can hash out some issues behind the scenes before qualifying in May, 2011.

I'll continue to post here for the next few weeks.  Thanks so much for your support and interest.

Voting

Just voted at the Camp School Precinct.  The school district did a nice job renovating the meeting room.  It was lovely to see JB VanSlyke's photo on the wall; a great reminder of his wonderful public service as the school board attorney.  It almost seems a different world when I first met JB.  I ran into my friend Don Hinton and my former client Gregor Kay at the voting station.  I was the 37th voter today at Camp, at 8:05 am.  This is going to be a huge election.

Listening to Delbert Hosemann on Paul Gallo's show right now, describing how the write-in votes will be counted.  I had a painless experience writing my name in; the touch-pad is well-tuned.  I just received a call from a friend of mine asking me precisely where and how to write-in my name.  I expect to receive many such calls.  If you're in Forrest, Perry, Lamar, Marion, or Pearl River Counties, look for James H.C. Thomas, Jr., on the ballot, and select the write-in blank below his name.  Type my name (or as close to it as you can manage), and you will be rewarded hopefully by my election to the judiciary, God willing.

Thanks to all the voters I've met this election.  God bless each of us in the exercise of our sovereign franchise.