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BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C.—For the first time in approximately twenty years, voters will elect a new sheriff in today’s general election.
Fewer than ten percent of registered voters cast their ballots in the May runoff and so far turn out for today’s special election isn’t looking much better, officials say.
“Turnout has been small so far from what we are hearing,” stated Adam Hammons, Berkeley County Elections and Voter Registration Director. “I was hoping we would beat the primary turnout that was 13% but I am not sure if we will.”
Democratic candidate Anthony Smalls, a sergeant at the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office faces off with
Republican candidate Duane Lewis, the chief deputy of law enforcement at Santee Cooper.
“I’m for fair enforcement of the law. We have to do something about response times,” Lewis told WCBD-TV the day before the election. “We have to get more deputies in communities, and I’m going after the drug problem.”
Smalls is a 26 year veteran of the sheriff’s office who’s largely remained a low profile until recently.
“Manpower and we’re going to fix this response time thing. They (residents) worry more about response time. They want to see an officer when they want to see an officer,” Smalls told Channel 2’s Raymond Owens.
There are two former law enforcement officers campaigning as write-in candidates—former state trooper Derrick Burbage and former Hanahan police chief Melvin “M.C.” Bellew.
A group known as the ‘Concerned Voters of Berkeley County’ have also been aggressively campaigning for Brian Adams as a write-in.
Adams overwhelmingly won the primary but lost the runoff. Lewis took 51.8 percent of the vote to Adams’ 48.2 percent. The vote count was 5,726 to 5,328.
“It’s not uncommon (to have write-ins for sheriff),” Jarrod M. Bruder, executive director of the S.C. Sheriffs’ Association, recently told The Post and Courier. “Having one win, I guess, is uncommon.”
Gibbs Knotts, political science professor at the College of Charleston, said there’s a reason for that.
“It’s so much easier to select one of the candidates on the ballot. It’s certainly a long shot,” stated Knotts.
According to Hammons, no candidate in the recent past in Berkeley County has won a major election by write-in—but there is a first time for everything, of course.
“The Town of St. Stephen had a write-in winner for council a few years ago and there was a write-in winner for County Water Conservation Commissioner several years ago also,” Hammons told The Berkeley Observer. “Prior to this, I would have been surprised if a write-in won a countywide election, but after seeing the support that is out there leading up to the election I believe it definitely could happen.”
In fact, it has happened in other municipalities across the country. Two-term Fayette County Sheriff Rodney Inglelost lost the democratic primary in June 2014. After losing, he soon kicked off his write-
in campaign. In the end, he beat out his opponents in the general election as a write in candidate by 441 votes.
In 2008, voters in Shoshone County, Idaho elected a write-in candidate for sheriff for the first time since at least the 1960s. Gary Yergler won the general election by almost a thousand votes.
“Today the voters have an opportunity to really have a voice in the issues we have been hearing a lot about,” said Michael Mule, the county’s spokesperson. “Whether it’s body cameras, dashcams, the number of patrol deputies, fully staffing the jail, voters today truly have a chance to have their voices heard. We strongly hope as the county government that voters take advantage of their constitutional right and vote today.”
According to Hammons, the results for today’s general election likely won’t be available until late tonight.
“It will be a bit later than normal to get unofficial results out since we have to count write-ins. I am hoping to have this by 10 PM but it may be later,” stated Hammons.
Polls close at 7 p.m. For a list of polling locations, click here.
The candidate chosen in Tuesday’s election will fulfill the term until it expires in 2018.
