And then there were two.
Unofficial results are in for elections across Charleston County, and the race for Charleston’s first new mayor in 40 years is down to a runoff between John Tecklenburg and Leon Stavrinakis.
Stavrinakis led the six mayoral candidates for much of the night, ultimately taking 34.5 percent of the votes, but Tecklenburg managed to grab the top spot by fewer than 300 votes. Ginny Deerin came in third with 17 percent followed by William Dudley Gregorie, Maurice Washington, and Toby Smith.
The runoff election between Tecklenburg and Stavrinakis is scheduled for Tue. Nov. 17, which gives voters two weeks to figure out which man is right for the job.
The race for North Charleston mayor was hardly a contest at all as longtime incumbent Keith Summey ran away with more than 60 percent of the vote.
Several races for Charleston City Council are almost too close to call. Unofficial results have District 1 challenger Shawn Pinkston pulling ahead of incumbent Gary White by just seven votes, but with a margin that small, it’s probably best to wait until final results are released before a winner is truly crowned. It seems the race for District 3 could come down to a runoff as incumbent James Lewis Jr. claimed the most votes but failed to take the simple majority. That runoff would be between Lewis and Jimmy Bailey Jr. who fell short of the leader by fewer than 150 votes. Runoffs will be officially announced once the election results are verified by the City of Charleston municipal election commission.
The District 5 seat on City Council goes to incumbent Marvin Wagner, and Keith Waring will remain as the representative of District 7, claiming more than 75 percent of the votes. Unofficial results have challenger Peter Shahid unseating incumbent Aubry Alexander for the District 9 spot, while Bill Moody will remain as the District 11 representative.
Voter turnout for this year’s election was up by more than 3 percent over 2011 with 48,843 ballots cast. These unofficial totals are based on results released with 184 of 186 precincts reporting. Click here to see the unofficial results for your precinct.
Mayor of Charleston
John Tecklenburg: 8,930 (35.6%)
Leon Stavrinakis: 8,666 (34.55%)
Ginny Deerin: 4,377 (17.45%)
William Dudley Gregorie: 1,417 (5.65%)
Maurice Washington: 1,386 (5.53%)
Toby Smith: 266 (1.06%)
Write-In: 42 (0.17%)
Mayor of North Charleston
Keith Summey: 6,396 (60.55%)
John Singletary: 3,359 (31.80%)
Chris Collins: 577 (5.46%)
Clifford Smith: 217 (2.05%)
Write-In: 15 (0.14%)
Charleston City Council, District 1
Shawn Pinkston: 1,077 (49.93%)
Gary White: 1,070 (49.61%)
Write-In: 10 (0.46%)
Charleston City Council, District 3
James Lewis Jr.: 1,147 (49.78%)
Jimmy Bailey: 1,000 (43.4%)
Luqman S. Rasheed: 142 (6.16%)
Write-In: 15 (0.65%)
Charleston City Council, District 5
Marvin Wagner: 1,113 (51.96%)
Brian Byrd: 1,009 (51.96%)
Write-In: 20 (0.93%)
Charleston City Council, District 7
Keith Waring: 1,073 (77.31%)
Joe Johnston: 302 (21.76%)
Write-In: 13 (0.94%)
Charleston City Council, District 9
Peter Shahid: 1,263 (51.40%)
Aubry Alexander: 1,186 (48.27%)
Write-In: 8 (0.33%)
Charleston City Council, District 11
Bill Moody: 2,035 (77%)
Chris Cannon: 574 (21.72%)
Write-In: 34 (1.29%)
For a full list of election results from throughout the county, click here. Love Best of Charleston? Help the Charleston City Paper keep Best of Charleston going every year with a donation. Or sign up to become a member of the Charleston City Paper club.