Florence County elections commission certifies results

FLORENCE — The Florence County and city elections commission has certified Tuesday’s general election results and opened the filing period for protests, at least two of which could be waiting in the wings.

The commission met Friday morning as the Florence County Board of Canvassers, which reviewed provisional and failsafe ballots. A failsafe ballot contains only the elections that any voter in a particular county, municipality or state legislative district would receive.

Nearly 70 percent of the county’s 85,231 registered voters turned out to vote in the general election, Love said.

The period for filing protests will end at noon Wednesday. The county elections commission will hear any protests.

Strengthening Florence Families, which opposed Sunday alcohol sales in Florence, isn’t challenging the referendum’s results. The group, however, has filed a protest stating that several people violated state law by distributing literature in favor of the referendum within 200 feet of the entrance to a polling place.

Former Florence County Council District 5 Democratic candidate Andy Wilson, who was defeated by Johnnie Rodgers Jr. in the June primary, also discussed a possible protest.

Wilson, who was seeking a write-in candidacy against Rodgers, said it’s likely that hundreds of voters at his precinct and others received a Florence city ballot although they lived outside city limits. A city ballot wouldn’t have included the county council District 5 race, in which 40 write-in votes, equaling less than 1 percent of the vote, were recorded.

After the primary, Wilson tried to begin a petition candidacy, which was denied based on a state law forbidding an elections commission from placing a defeated candidate’s name on the ballot.

But nothing prevents voters from writing in a defeated candidate’s name, said Steve Love, Florence County’s interim elections director.

During the Board of Canvassers meeting, elections officials decided whether to count nearly 300 provisional and failsafe ballots. Many of the ballots had not been signed by the voter or witnessed as required, but a few ballots were ultimately counted because the voter had been purged only for inactivity.

One first-time voter was present along with his mother to follow up on his ballot, which he hadn’t signed.

“Read the instructions, son,” elections commission Chairman James Tanner told the young man, who apologized. “No, don’t be sorry; just be more careful next time.”

Tanner and the crowd applauded the voter, however, for casting his first ballot. The commission also wrote the young man an excuse for missing his classes.

After reviewing 296 ballots and deciding to count 27 of them, the commission certified the election results, which were available shortly after 2 p.m.