According to election laws, voters who voted in the Republican Primary in June will not be eligible to vote in the upcoming S.C. Senate District 30 primary election.

All other registered voters in District 30, including those who voted in the June 8 Democratic primary and those who did not vote in any previous primary, are eligible to vote, Florence County Elections and Voter Registration Director Russell Barrett said.

With all actions in state and federal courts resolved, Gov. Mark Sanford ordered Tuesday that a new District 30 primary election between Maggie Glover, Tim Norwood and Kent Williams be held Sept. 28. If a runoff is necessary, it will be conducted two weeks after the election on Oct. 12.

Although Florence County voters will be using the county’s new electronic system for the Nov. 2 general election, the old punchcard system will be used for the District 30 democratic primary.

“That election’s been set up on the punchcard system for two months,” Barrett said. “We’ve just been waiting to get word on whether or not it was going to happen.”

The S.C. Senate District 30 election has been mired in controversy from the moment the votes from the June 8 primary were counted.

While Glover took first place in the race with 35 percent of the vote, the initial election night count showed a dead heat between Norwood and Williams, with Norwood ahead by seven votes. The June 9 certification of the election results, however, produced a different result, with six votes separating Norwood and Williams.

According to state law, a mandatory recount of the vote must be held by individual county election commissions if less than 1 percent of the total vote separates two candidates. On June 12, the election results were sent to the state Election Commission for certification, which ordered the mandatory recount. The June 14 recount put Williams ahead of Norwood by six votes.

Glover, displeased with the executive committee’s decision, filed suit against the Democratic Party in state and federal court. The S.C. Supreme Court refused to hear her case.

Sanford ordered the new election earlier this week after U.S. District Judge Terry L. Wooten granted summary judgement for the defendants in the suit, the primary of which was the S.C. Democratic Party, ruling that the record fails to reflect any “denial or abridgement” of the right of any citizen’s right to vote.

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