Runoffs to decide Hartsville, Society Hill mayoral races

Justin Evans. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Casey Hancock. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Society Hill Mayor Tommy Bradshaw. PHOTO BY BOBBY BRYANT

Challenger Dwayne Duke. PHOTO BY BOBBY BRYANT

By Bobby Bryant, Editor

editor@newsandpress.net

Runoffs on Nov. 16 will decide who holds the mayor’s post in Darlington County’s biggest and smallest towns. Hartsville voters will choose between Justin Evans and Casey Hancock, the top vote-getters in the five-candidate Nov. 2 elections, according to unofficial returns. Evans, who describes himself as an entrepreneur who’s worked with three S.C. governors, led the balloting with 594 votes. Hancock, an IT consultant and part owner of Wild Heart Brewing Co., received 492 votes. In Society Hill, voters will choose between incumbent Mayor Tommy Bradshaw and challenger Dwayne Duke in the runoff. Bradshaw got 89 votes in the Nov. 2 three-man race; Duke, a welder who runs a bed-and-breakfast with his wife, got 50 votes, according to unofficial returns. A race for Society Hill Town Council also will be decided in the Nov. 16 runoffs. Melissa Burch and Kevin Long will face off for an at-large council seat. Burch got 74 votes on Nov. 2; Long got 77. A field of five rivals had been in the running to succeed Hartsville Mayor Mel Pennington, who chose not to run again. The Nov. 2 balloting took three of them out of the race: — Rev. Jim Blue, pastor of 2nd Missionary Baptist Church in Hartsville, received 353 votes, according to unofficial totals. — Businessman Jordan Flowers got 104 votes. — Stephen Peterson, pastor of Great Commission Deliverance Baptist Church in Hartsville, got 27 votes. Three other Hartsville races were on the ballot, and those were decided without runoffs. In Hartsville City Council District 1, incumbent Kenzie Delaine was re-elected with 98 votes. His challenger, Carolyn Govan, got 41 votes. In City Council District 3, incumbent Teresa Mack was re-elected with 212 votes. Her opponent Andrew Tedder dropped out of the race shortly before the election; he got 33 votes since his name remained on ballots. And in City Council District 5, incumbent Bob Braddock was re-elected with 217 votes; he had no opposition. In Society Hill, three candidates had been on the Nov. 2 ballots for mayor. One, Scott Dixon, a graphic designer for a Florence software company, failed to make the runoff with 43 votes. Also in Society Hill, two at-large Town Council seats were on the ballots. One race will end in a runoff between Burch and Long. The other seat was won outright by Denise Douglas (119 votes); she is a former Town Council member. Incumbent council member Carolyn Oliver, with 49 votes, was outdistanced by her rivals and will be leaving office in January. Another council candidate, Ernest Helms III, dropped out of the race months ago.

Author: Stephan Drew

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