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Nearly 37,000 in county eligible to vote in GOP Senate runoff

With local voter turnout in the June 8 primary elections relatively low, a good many registered voters in Orangeburg, Calhoun and Bamberg counties will be eligible to participate in Tuesday's Republican primary runoff.

The runoff election is between former Gov. David Beasley and U.S. 4th District Rep. Jim DeMint for the party's U.S. Senate nomination.

"The only people who are eligible Tuesday are those individuals who participated in the Republican primary -- 1,800 approximately -- and those who did not participate at all in either Democratic or Republican primary," said Earl Whalen, Orangeburg County's director of elections and voter registration. "I encourage those 35,000 (who didn't participate before) to come on out."

And, Whalen said, election officials have a list of exactly who voted in which primary on June 8.

"When they participated on June 8, it was noted on the books that they swore an oath ... when they signed in ... so they swore an oath that they would participate in one primary," he said. "It was duly noted and recorded and that same list will be used for the runoff on June 22. Anyone who attempts to violate that oath will have his ballot challenged. They can tell immediately."

In Orangeburg County, where less than 34.5 percent of the 52,376 active registered voters actually went to the polls two weeks ago, that leaves some 35,815 voters who are still eligible to participate in the GOP runoff, in addition to the 1,800 Republicans who voted two weeks ago.

In Calhoun County, the 374 Republicans who voted on June 8, plus another 5,736 who did not participate at all, are eligible for the runoff. With a high-profile sheriff's race in the county, voter participation two weeks ago was a little higher at 38 percent.

Bamberg County, which had no local countywide Democratic contests in the primary, had a voter participation rate of only 14 percent. The 364 voters who participated in the GOP primary, plus the 6,998 who stayed home, are eligible to vote Tuesday.

Beasley, the top vote-getter in the six-candidate field, will face off against second-place finisher, DeMint. The winner will meet Democrat Inez Tenenbaum, the state superintendent of education, in the November general election. The candidates are seeking the Senate seat of Democratic Sen. Fritz Hollings, who is retiring after 39 years in office.

Polls will be open Tuesday from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. Also, local voter registration offices will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.