After Tuesday’s primary in the special election to fill Robert Ford’s vacancy in S.C. Senate District 42, Democratic contenders Marlon Kimpson and Maurice Washington came out on top. Since neither candidate earned a simple majority of the votes, the two will face off in a primary runoff Aug. 27. On Oct. 1, the winner of the runoff will face Republican Billy Shuman and Libertarian Alex Thornton, who was selected in an Aug. 10 delegates’ convention in Columbia. Shuman ran unopposed as a Republican.
According to unofficial results from Tuesday night, turnout in the Democratic primary was 4,772 out of 62,231 registered voters in the district, or 7.7 percent. Since voters do not register with a party in South Carolina, it is impossible to know how many of the total registered voters are Democrats. Some precincts had very low turnout, including St. Andrews 7, where zero votes were cast, and St. Andrews 6, where the lone vote was cast for Kimpson.
It is difficult to find another election to make a meaningful comparison, but for one data point, a recent Republican primary in a special election for S.C. Senate District 41 netted just 3.9 percent of registered voters.
Here are the unofficial results from the Charleston County Board of Elections and Voter Registration:
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