MARION — The Marion County Election Commission will meet at noon Saturday at to hear protests lodged by Nancy Harrelson and Ronald Davis, who were candidates in Tuesday’s Marion city elections. The protest hearing will be conducted across the street from the election commission office in the Beeson Building at 206 Airport Court. Mullins.
Harrelson was a mayoral candidate and Davis was the incumbent for the Marion City District 3 seat. Both were defeated in Tuesday’s election. The election results were certified Thursday morning when the eight-member commission met to review ballots.
Official election results show that Rodney Berry, a write-in candidate, beat Harrelson 1,299 votes to 619; Betsey Atkinson beat Ronald Davis by 10 votes, 199 to 189; and District Seat 5 and 6 were retained by incumbents Poiette McGill-Brommel and Michael Baker, respectively, as they were unopposed.
In order to have a recount in the Davis-Atkinson race, election commission officials said, the vote would have had to be within a 1 percent difference of the total votes cast, which was 391, or 3 votes.
The 10-vote difference keeps a recount from occurring. To win by a majority, or 50 percent of the votes, a candidate would need 196 votes, Marion County’s Voter Registration and Election Commission Director Teresa Moody said.
Both Davis and Harrelson filed protests at the sheriff’s office at 6:40 p.m. Friday, narrowly beating the 48-hour deadline to do so. Because they were filed in a timely manner, election commission chairman Robert Harrelson said, their complaints will be heard at a public hearing, which has to be set within 48 hours of the filing of the complaint.
Because a public hearing has to have 24 hours notice before it can be conducted, the hearing has been set for noon Saturday at the Beeson Building, 206 Airport Court, Mullins. The commission’s attorney will be present at the hearing.
Complaints filed by the candidates are: “Claims (documented of voters having been paid for their vote; irregularities according to the SCEC handbook on elections; poll watches not following guidelines or regulations pertaining to the voters process; and highly suspected number of absentees ballots, witnessed by the same individual.”
Because the commission has certified the election results, Berry and Atkinson are free to be sworn in to their offices. No date has been set for that yet, city officials said.
Pending the outcome of the election commission’s decision Saturday, candidates filing protests can opt to take their protests to court.
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