SHERIFF CANDIDATES TO BE SELECTED TONIGHT

JACKSON -- Members of the Cape Girardeau County Democratic and Republican Central Committees are scheduled to meet tonight in Jackson to select nominees to run Nov. 8 for an unexpired term for sheriff.

Republicans have five candidates that have expressed an interest in running, while Democrats have four candidates interested.

Members of the party central committees were elected in Tuesday's primary. Both party committees also have new members eligible to participate tonight because of write-in election victories in precincts where no committee candidate filed.

Republicans had 11 of their 18 vacant committee positions filled Tuesday, while Democrats had 22 of 37 vacant spots filled.

Although some write-in votes for open committee spots are common, a strategy used by some candidates for sheriff has been to improve their support on the committee by filling committee vacancies.

Republicans will meet at 7 p.m. in the first floor of the county administration building, while Democrats will gather in the circuit courtroom at 7:30.

The vacancy for sheriff was created Monday when Norman Copeland's resignation took effect. The county commission appointed his chief deputy, Leonard Hines, as interim sheriff.

State law requires party committees to choose nominees for a special election that will be held as part of the general election for the remaining two years of Copeland's term.

County Clerk Rodney Miller said Wednesday there were an unusually high number of write-ins. As part of the training for election judges, Miller had issued special instructions to insure that committee write-ins were properly counted and recorded on tally sheets.

Late Wednesday afternoon, after the write-in results were compiled, Miller met with Democratic Chairman Rick Althaus and Republican Chairman Steve C. Wilson -- he isn't related to the sheriff candidate -- to give them a list of names.

Miller and his staff verified that all of the write-in winners were registered voters and eligible to serve. He provided names and addresses to the party chairmen and left it up to them to make contacts about Thursday's meeting.

Miller also asked the chairmen to advise his office of anyone who was elected but didn't want to serve. The clerk's office will send out written notices of election soon.

Althaus and Wilson both said they are pleased with the caliber of candidates they have to choose from tonight. Both noted that many committee members are struggling with who to vote for.

The committees plan to give candidates an opportunity to speak and be questioned by committee members. Votes will be taken by secret ballot, and the nominee will be the candidate with a majority of the votes.

Althaus and Wilson speculated that it could take the committees several ballots to pick a nominee.

The two chairmen also said they did not know what impact the committee members elected by write-in would have on tonight's nomination process.

State law requires that at least half of the central committees be present for a nominee to be chosen. Proxy voting isn't allowed for the nominations.