After a lengthy discussion during Wednesday’s Pearl River County Board of Supervisors meeting, the Board made a motion to move the Southside precinct voting location to the National Guard Armory. This is where residents living in the Southside precinct will vote for the upcoming Picayune School District Board of Trustees election Nov. 7.

During last week’s meeting, Board President Sandy Kane Smith said he was going to talk with Manna Ministries and see if the organization was willing to continue to act as a voting location for that precinct. However, Smith said Wednesday that Manna Ministries declined.

“They just have so much on their plates as it is, and told me it just wouldn’t work out,” Smith said.

The second option was to move voting to the National Guard Armory, which now houses multiple voting districts and serves as the permanent voting location for the Southside precinct.

After finalizing the voting location for that precinct, discussion concerning consolidating other precincts took place.

“What we are trying to do is lower the amount of voting locations,” County Administrator Adrain Lumpkin said.

After hearing from every district’s election commissioner, discussions of the plan to reduce voting locations from 32 to 18 were universally understood by the Board members and election commissioners.

The Board did not take action on the matter Wednesday, but will reopen discussion about the topic and make a decision at the next Board meeting set for Oct. 2.