By Billy Davis

Panola County voters added fewer than 900 votes to the June 1 Republican Primary, delivering most of them to winner Alan Nunnelee.

Nunnelee, who had been favored to win, collected 77 percent of the votes cast in Panola. He won the 1st District primary with 52 percent of the vote, narrowly avoiding a runoff.

Fewer than five percent of eligible Mississippi voters turned out for primaries in three Congressional districts, The Clarion-Ledger reported.

Nunnelee’s win sends him to the November 2 General Election, where he will face Democrat Travis Childers and other candidates on the ballot. Those candidates include Wally Pang of Batesville.

Former Eupora mayor Henry Ross followed second in the GOP primary with 33 percent of votes cast. He finished second in Panola County with 97 votes.

Fox News analyst Angela McGlowan, of Oxford, finished third in the primary. She received 88 votes from Panola Countians.

Voter turnout was light in Panola and across the 1st District, where 38,485 votes were counted.

Panolians cast 834 votes across the county, where poll workers reported little activity.

The East Batesville precinct was the busiest, collecting 97 votes. The slowest activity was at Cold Springs, which collected zero voters during the 12-hour day.

“If we can get one more voter we’ll have our first,” quipped a poll worker there.

Poll workers said some would-be voters showed up but did not vote when they learned it was a Republican primary. Mississippi holds open primaries, meaning any registered voter can cast a ballot regardless of party affiliation.

Some voters mistakenly believed polls were open for the coming sheriff’s election, poll workers also said.