Darlington County votes in state runoff elections
By Samantha Lyles, Staff Writer, slyles@newsandpress.net
Voters headed back to the polls on Tuesday, June 26 to cast their ballots in state primary runoff elections, including the Republican nomination for governor of South Carolina.
In the June 12 primary, Republican incumbent Governor Henry McMaster failed to secure over fifty percent of the vote and so entered a one-on-one contest against his closest challenger, John Warren. Nearly 344,000 GOP voters turned out for the runoff and gave McMaster a 53.63 percent majority win over Warren, 184,286 votes to 159,349. McMaster won Darlington County by a count of 2,630 to 1,039.
In the race for the Republican nomination for Attorney General, Republican Alan Wilson won his runoff race against challenger Todd Atwater. Wilson secured 64.97 percent of the vote and won by a count of 213,538 to 115,133. Wilson won Darlington County by a tally of 2,124 to 1,431.
Contenders Robert Williams and Mal Hyman squared off over the Democratic nomination for the US District 7 Congressional seat, and Williams won the runoff by just over 400 votes. The final count was 7,729 for Williams and 7,309 for Hyman, giving Williams 51.40 percent of the statewide vote. Williams won Darlington County by a wider margin, garnering 1,832 votes against Hyman’s 858 votes.
These candidates and others who already secured their party’s nominations on June 12 will appear on the November 6 general election ballot.
Turnout among Darlington County voters was light, with only 6,462 ballots cast from a pool of 45,641 registered voters. With two contests on the Republican party ticket and one on the Democratic ballot, GOP voters showed up in larger numbers and outpaced their Dem counterparts by a count of 3,752 to 2,710.
To learn more about local polling locations, registrations, and voting procedures, contact Darlington County Elections and Registrations at 843-398-4900