The election process for Kosciusko Mayor demands full transparency Oops, “we made a mistake” still part of the playbook in white-controlled black-majority town

By Christopher Young,
Contributing Writer,

According to Census estimates, Kosciusko’s population declined 4.8% between 2020 and 2024 and now stands at 6,774, the white population being estimated at 38.4% and the black population estimated to be at 60%. However, the incumbent mayor, city clerk, police chief, fire chief, three out of five aldermen, building and development official, school superintendent, parks and recreation director, and municipal judge are all white. How does that work? White people are in the minority yet possess control and management of the majority population in a small Mississippi town, the county seat of Attala County.
As reported by broadcast outlets on June 3rd election night, the Kosciusko mayoral race was called for Marv -in K. Myles, Jr. – 616 to 585 – with 100% of precincts reporting. Finally, for the first time ever, an African American in a 60% African American city was unofficially declared Mayor elect! That victory didn’t last. The following day, the script was flipped.
Here’s how WLBT’s Teddy Reidy reported it. “The City of Kosciusko has issued a correction for the unofficial results of Tuesday’s municipal general election for the office of mayor.” During the initial announcement of results, the accepted absentee ballots were inadvertently omitted from the total vote count, according to the City Clerk’s Office. After including the accepted absentee ballots that were properly received and verified, the revised unofficial results are as follows:
Tim Kyle – 689 votes, Marvin Myles Jr. – 658 votes. The City Clerk’s Office ‘regrets the oversight and is committed to ensuring transparency and accuracy in the electoral process.’ Additionally, there remain 68 absentee and affidavit ballots that are outstanding and await review. These ballots were evaluated by the Municipal Election Resolution Board during a public meeting on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, at 9 a.m., as required by state law. Only after this review will the official results be certified. The City Clerk’s Office stated, ‘we appreciate the public’s patience and understanding as we work to ensure every eligible vote is counted.”
By all appearances, it was the City Clerk, Michelle Quesnot, who discovered the alleged disparity. If not, she would have mentioned the election commissioners that are charged with the actual vote calculations. There is no mention of election commissioners in her statement.
There were 68 absentee and affidavit votes still uncounted. Yet, per Quesnot’s statement, somehow, the white incumbent Mayor, Tim Kyle, who ran as an Independent, had picked up 104 votes overnight, and the challenger, who had already been declared the winner, Marvin K. Myles, Jr., a Democrat, gained 42. These absentee ballots, totaling 146 deemed accepted, were found to have not been initially included in the vote tally.
We are asked to believe that a core function of the poll managers upon closure of the polls at 7PM on election night – the counting of the ballots – whether they be paper or scanned, was not done properly. We are asked to believe that poll managers don’t know that accepted absentee ballots are part of the final tally. We are asked to believe that poll managers did not perform their duties as required by law. We are asked to believe that it was human error. We are asked to believe that it has nothing to do with the fact that a Black man had been deemed Mayor elect of the City of Kosciusko Mississippi for the first time in its history.
Per https://www.attalacounty.net/election-commission, duties of the election commission include: compiling precinct results on Election Day, certifying election results, and providing election data to the public. All the details about county elections in Mississippi can be found in this handbook, https://sos.ms.gov/content/documents/elections/County%20Election%20Handbook.revised%209.18.2023.pdf.
In discussion between The Mississippi Link newspaper and Marvin K. Myles, Jr. it was revealed that the 37 affidavit ballots were reviewed after normal working hours, without public notice, and only 9 were accepted, 7 for Myles, Jr. and 2 for Incumbent Mayor Kyle. Further, on June 11th, the Secretary of State’s office was represented at the Municipal Election Resolution Board in Kosciusko at 9AM. It was believed that 31 absentee ballots would be reviewed, which would be in keeping with the Clerk’s statement on June 4th, but in fact, mysteriously, there were only 9, and 8 of those were rejected and one was deemed to have already been counted. As the Clerk’s attorney was telling her not to answer any questions, the final unofficial totals were 691 for incumbent Tim Kyle and 665 for challenger Marvin K. Myles, Jr. Mr. Myles indicated that five police officers escorted two Resolution Board members out, along with the representative from the Secretary of State’s office. Then all the others were asked to leave.
The results will be forwarded to the Secretary of State’s office to become official. There still remain questions regarding process, procedures, lack of transparency and public notices. This matter seems far from over.