On October 27, the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld an order of a lower state court, and ruled that voters should choose a new judge in the 13th Judicial Circuit on November 2, 2010, using write-in votes.  No names will be printed on the ballot for that office.  Here is the opinion, which is called Rayner v Barbour, 2010-EC-1682.

Generally, when Mississippi voters use the write-in to elect someone, there is someone’s name on the ballot.  The Circuit Clerks of the various counties in the 13th Circuit had filed the lawsuit against the Secretary of State, alleging that it is not proper to use write-in votes to choose a new judge, in the circumstances that no one’s name is printed on the ballot.  The only candidate who had qualified to have his name on the ballot had died before the ballots were printed, so his name does not appear.  But there was no time for anyone else to qualify to be listed.  The clerks filed the lawsuit because they worry that the voters will not make an informed choice.  But the majority decision says, “The Court observes that all Mississippi elections, except for run-off elections, permit voters to vote by write-in vote.”

The Associated Press initially sent out a story about this lawsuit, saying it was in federal court, but that was an error.