Sheriff David Taylor, standing right, looks over election results on Tuesday night with his wife, Betty Jo. Taylor won re-election after challenges from William Jolly and Marshall Adams.

slideshow

Sheriff David Taylor listens to the radio as results come in on Tuesday night at the Union County Fairgrounds.

slideshow

David Taylor's family gathers around him as the returns come in on Tuesday night as the final precincts are reported.

slideshow

Marshall Adams, holding his grandson, spent time with his family before the polls closed on Tuesday night.

slideshow

slideshow

UNION — Voters opted to stay the course Tuesday and handily gave David Taylor a second term as Union County Sheriff.

Unofficial results show Taylor winning reelection with 9,407 votes to the 1,445 votes for retired S.C. Highway patrolman Marshall Adams and 1,237 votes for former sheriff William Jolly.

While Taylor ran for reelection as a Democrat, Adams and Jolly ran as petition candidates without party affiliation due a decision by the S.C. Supreme Court.

In May, the S.C. Supreme Court ruled that all candidates must provide their parties with paper copies of their statements of economic interest even if they had been filed electronically. The court’s decision resulted in the removal of hundreds of candidates across the state from the June 12 primary and Tuesday’s general election ballots. The candidates removed from the ballot included 10 of the 17 candidates running in Union County.

The candidates removed from the ballot in Union County included Jolly, who was running for sheriff as a Democrat, and Adams, who was running as a Republican. While they could not run as the candidates of their respective parties, Jolly and Adams were each able to secure themselves a spot on the November ballot as petition candidates.

While disappointed about the outcome of the election, Jolly said he was looking forward to returning to private life.

“It’s been a long, long race and I’m relieved it’s over,” Jolly said Tuesday evening. “I’m disappointed we didn’t win, but that’s politics. I want to congratulate David and Marshall both on a good clean race. Now I’ll get to go back to fishing.”

Adams also expressed disappointment, but thanked his supporters for their efforts on his behalf.

“It’s been a long road,” Adams said. “It’s been a learning experience for me. I appreciate all my supporters. I’m sorry how it turned out but that’s politics. The people have spoken and that’s what counts.”

Taylor thanked the people of Union County for his reelection and said he will continue to work to improve the sheriff’s office.

“We’re happy with the turnout tonight,” Taylor said. “I think the people of Union County have spoken overwhelmingly that they approve of what we’ve done in the past four years in the sheriff’s office. We haven’t gotten all the problems worked out, but we’re a lot closer than we were four years ago. We’re going to keep working to make the sheriff’s office what we want it to be. I just want to thank the people of Union County for turning out today and for their support of me.”