Baldwin wins county District 1 race

DARLINGTON — Republican Billy Baldwin of Darlington won reelection to Darlington County Council on Tuesday, defeating Democrat Brenda Broach of Darlington 1,989 votes to 1,476, or by about 57 percent of the vote to 43 percent.

The District 1 council race was the only contested local race on Tuesday’s ballot in Darlington County.

Baldwin currently chairs county council. Broach is the former human resource manager for the county.

Darlington County election officials will meet at 10 a.m. today to certify the results of Tuesday’s general election balloting and to consider any challenged ballots.

The only other contested races on Tuesday’s ballot in Darlington County were for president, U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.

As Democratic President-elect Barack Obama of Illinois won the big prize in Tuesday’s voting for president over Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, Darlington County narrowly went for McCain, 14,532 votes to 14,475, or about 49.6 percent to 49.4 percent.

The remaining candidates, Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party, Libertarian Bob Barr, petition candidate Ralph Nader and Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin got just 1 percent of the vote among them.

In the race for U.S. Senate from South Carolina, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham carried Darlington County with 15,473 votes, about 54 percent of the vote, to 13,135, or about 46 percent, for Democrat Bob Conley.

Democratic U.S. Rep. John Spratt easily held on to Darlington County in his bid for another term in Congress representing the state’s 5th District. Spratt polled 17,797 votes among Darlington County voters, about 62 percent of the vote, to 10,512 votes, or 37 percent of the vote, for Republican Albert Spencer and 255 votes, or nearly 1 percent, for Frank Waggoner of the Constitution Party.

Three constitutional amendments also appeared on Tuesday’s ballot. Darlington County voters rejected all three. Amendment 1, which deletes the provision setting the age of consent for sex for women no lower than 14 from the state constitution lost 13,836 votes to 11,421 among county voters, or by about 55 percent to 45 percent.

Amendments 2 and 3, which dealt with investment of post employment benefits for state and local government employees both lost in Darlington County. Amendment 2 lost by 15,661 votes to 9,091, or by about 63 percent of the vote to 37 percent. And Darlington County voters rejected Amendment 3 by 14,858 votes to 9,458, or by about 61 percent of the vote to 39 percent.

State Sens. Gerald Malloy and Hugh Leatherman, state Reps. Jay Lucas, Denny Neilson and Robert Williams, Darlington County Council members Wilhel-mina Johnson, Le Flowers and Alex “Buz” Shaw and Darlington County Board of Education members Connell Delaine, Warren Jeffords, Charles Govan and Jamie Morphis all ran unopposed for reelection.