(Florence-AP) Oct. 13, 2004 - Marion County Deputy Administrator Kent Williams on Tuesday night defeated state Senator Maggie Glover in the Democratic primary runoff for the District 30 seat.

Williams received 58.7% of the vote compared with Glover's 41.3%. Williams will likely become the district's next senator, because he faces no Republican opponent in the November 2nd election.

Glover is the state's only black female senator. She was elected to the Senate in 1993 after serving in the House from 1989 to 1992.

The runoff ends the second primary in four months for the seat. Governor Mark Sanford ordered a new primary after the state party threw out the results of the June 8th primary amid allegations of voter fraud after a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by Glover.

Glover and Williams were the top two vote-getters in a three-way primary election held two weeks ago, advancing to the runoff over Tim Norwood.

The original count showed Norwood and Glover in a runoff, but a re-count later that week put Williams in the runoff with seven more votes than Norwood. Norwood appealed those results and brought allegations of voting fraud to the state party, which threw out the results and ordered a new primary with Glover, Williams and Norwood on the ballot.

Glover and Williams appealed the decision to the South Carolina Supreme Court, but the court refused to hear the case. Glover filed the federal lawsuit. Her lawyers argued the state party didn't follow the law in handling the primary election protest and disenfranchised black voters.

updated 7:54am by BrettWitt