Special legislative elections are happening in some parts of Mississippi with voters asked to head to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 5.

A majority of seats on ballots stem from a federal order that lawmakers redraw House districts in the Chickasaw County area, along with Senate districts in the Hattiesburg and DeSoto County areas, after it was determined that the previously used maps diluted Black voting power. The new maps resulted in elections for 14 seats. Primaries were held in August with the deciding generals soon to be underway.

Three additional seats – one in the House and two in the Senate – were left vacant by now-Clarksdale Mayor Orlando Paden, now-Jackson Mayor John Horhn, and Greenwood’s David Jordan, who’s retiring after 32 years in the legislature. Unlike the seats hinging on

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