NATCHEZ, Miss. – City polling places will remain the same as previous municipal elections except for Ward 3, where voters will be casting ballots at the old Trinity school campus.
The U.S. 61 site, now the home of Cornerstone Church and a charter school, replaces Crosspoint Church as a voting precinct. That Highland Boulevard location is no longer in Ward 3 after Natchez aldermen drew new city district lines last year.
The Natchez Board of Aldermen on Thursday approved the new polling place in advance of the municipal elections for the mayor and six aldermen taking place next spring.
Sarah Carter Smith represents Ward 3. The ward’s new realignment has her south Natchez ward centered by John R. Junkin Drive to include neighborhoods such as Glenwood to intersect with Seargent Prentiss Drive past Merit Health hospital and Jeff Davis Boulevard areas to extend on U.S. 61 southward past The Hills and Woodhaven neighborhoods.
The city’s other ward polling places will be the same as previous elections:
Ward 1, currently represented by Valencia Hall: the city Council Chambers
building on South Pearl Street
Ward 2, currently represented by Billie Joe Frazier: Joseph Frazier Elementary School on George West Boulevard
Ward 4, represented by Felicia Irving: Christian Hope Baptist Church on LaSalle Street
Ward 5, represented by Ben Davis: the Adams County Safe Room building on Liberty Road
Ward 6, represented by Curtis Moroney: the old Canteen building in Duncan Park
City aldermen in December 2022 realigned the new wards they and other candidates will be campaigning to represent when they run in Natchez’ 2024 elections, which begin in April with party primaries.
The new electoral lines reflect Natchez’ population shifts to ensure the wards are nearly equal in size as the city has shrunk in number of residents.
The new ward lines were redrawn to adhere to the Voting Rights Act. Natchez is about 64 percent Black and 34 percent White, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. The Board of Aldermen has four Black members and two White members. The city had about 15,800 people in 2010 and dropped to 14,500 in 2020 – a decline of nearly 1,300.
A map of the new Natchez wards can be seen on the city’s website: www.natchez.ms.us/DocumentCenter/View/1290/MAP-NATCHEZ-PROPOSED-WARD-PLAN-SEP12_22
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