UNION — The addition of 62 ballots to the total number cast did not change the outcome of any of the races in Tuesday’s general election
The Union County Election Commission met Friday morning in the Union County Voter Registrar’s Office to certify the outcome of the election as required by state law. Until then, all results were unofficial and subject to possible change as the commission conducted the certification process.
Keith Vanderford, commission chairman, informed the commissioners that a voting machine in the East Buffalo precinct and one in Ward 3 malfunctioned Tuesday. Vanderford said when the machines malfunctioned 55 votes in the East Buffalo precinct and seven in the Ward 3 precinct were not included in the initial totals. He the machines were immediately shut down when the malfunctions and no votes were lost.
Vanderford said the votes that were not initially counted, were retrieved from the machines’ memory by a technician from the company that services them. He said once they were retrieved they were added to the totals.
While the addition of the ballots changed the total number cast in the precincts and overall, Vanderford said they did not change any of the outcomes from Tuesday’s elections.
Vanderford said with the addition of the 62 previously uncounted votes, a total of 12,667 votes were cast Tuesday.
There were a total of 63 ballots used in Tuesday election due to the large number of races on the ballot and the large number of single-member districts in many of those races. This resulted in many precincts being split between many of the county council, school board, city council and other local races.
Some races, however, were on the ballot in all of the county’s 23 precincts including:
• The presidential race where a total of 12,541 ballots were cast for Republican Mitt Romney (6,584), Democrat Barack Obama (5,796), Libertarian Gary Johnson (71), Green Party candidate Jill Stein (48), and Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode (42)
• The U.S. House Fifth District race where a total of 11,970 ballots were cast for Republican Mick Mulvaney (6,091) and for Joye Knott who was the candidate of the Democratic (5,262) and Working Families (605) parties. The total also included 12 write-in votes.
• The Union County Sheriff race where a total of 12,167 votes were cast for Democrat David Taylor (9,464) and petition candidates Marshal Adams (1,449) and William Jolly (1,241). The total also included 13 write-in votes.
• The Union County Clerk of Court race where a total of 11,451 votes were cast for Republican Freddie Gault (5,872) and petition candidate Melanie Lawson (5,566). The total also included 13 write-in votes.
• The S.C. House District 42 race where a total of 10,988 votes were cast. Of those, 10,812 were cast for Democrat Mike Anthony who was unopposed for reelection. The remaining 176 ballots cast were write-ins.
• The Sixteenth Circuit Solicitor’s race where a total of 8,433 votes were cast. Of those, 8,360 were cast for Republican Kevin Brackett who was unopposed for reelection. The remaining 73 ballots cast were write-ins.
• A proposed amendment to the state constitution which would have allowed the lieutenant governor to run with the governor received a total of 11,823 votes including 6,145 yes votes and 5,678 no votes.
• A referendum to change the county’s form of government from council-supervisor to council-administrator received a total of 10,813 with 7,663 voting in favor retaining the county-supervisor system and 3,150 voting to change it to council-administrator.
Carlisle
Tuesday’s ballot also included municipal elections for mayor and two council seats in the Town of Carlisle.
Mayor Mary Ferguson-Glenn, who was unopposed for reelection, received 165 of the 201 votes cast with the remaining 36 being write-ins.
Even though there were two council seats on the ballot, there was only one candidate, incumbent Ronnie “Motorcar” Lyles on the ballot. Lyles received 206 of the 230 votes with the remaining 30 being write-ins.
Vanderford said the person who receives the most write-in votes will fill the other seat on council if they agreed to accept it. He said he informed the municipal clerk of the Town of Carlisle who received the write-in votes so she could pass that information along and ask the person who received the most votes if they want to serve on council.
Editor Charles Warner can be reached at 864-427-1234, ext. 14, or by email at cwarner@heartlandpublications.com
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