There’s soon to be a new Sheriff in Darlington County; however, it will take a second election to decide who exactly the new man will be.
After months of walking the campaign trails, Darlington Police Capt. Wayne Byrd took the most votes against Darlington County Chief Deputy Tom Gainey and Lamar Police Chief Charles Woodle in Tuesday’s Democratic Primary election.
Although Darlington County officials said voter turnout was low, Byrd garnered 3,477 votes to Gainey’s 2,706 and Woodle’s 1,407.
The election rules state in a three-man race a candidate must receive 51 percent of the votes in order to be declared winner. Byrd narrowly missed the requirement receiving 48 percent of the votes cast.
That will pit Byrd against Gainey in a runoff to decide the Democratic nomination for Darlington County Sheriff. The nominee will become sheriff in November because there is no Republican opposition for the race.
“We are excited,” Byrd said Wednesday morning. “It was a great election. We were really pleased with the turnout. We would like to have had about 250 more votes, but we’ll take what the Lord gives.”
Byrd said he is looking forward to the runoff with Gainey. “We are hoping for big things on the 24th. We need to get all of our people out and we are hoping to encourage some of Charles Woodle’s people to come along with us. We want to get some big changes made in the county.”
Byrd added his campaign would not change for the runoff. “We are going to stick to the same message we had all along. We’ve tried to run a positive race and talk about what we’d like to see done, and we are just going to stick to that message.”
Byrd began his law enforcement career in his hometown of Society Hill in 1987 and has been with the Darlington Police Department since 1989.
As of press time Thursday, Gainey was unavailable for comment.
Gainey has been chief deputy since 1996.
Editor’s note:
Those who voted on the Republican ticket are not eligible to vote in the sheriff’s runoff. Those who voted on the Democratic ticket or did not vote may vote in the runoff.
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