Fort Mill mayor cruises to reelection; Clover mayor doesn’t fare as well

York County votes are in, and they’ll bring a mix of new and familiar faces to elected offices throughout the area.

Clover will have a new mayor, according to complete but unofficial election results. Bo Legg collected nearly two-thirds of the vote to knock off incumbent Greg Holmes.

Fort Mill won’t, as incumbent Guynn Savage defeated challenger Ryan Helms by a 70% to 29% margin.

Fort Mill and Tega Cay results were the last to come in at about 9:30 p.m. Almost 5,600 ballots cast in York County represented an almost 8.5% voter turnout in areas where races were held.

Clover and York results came in at about 8:20 p.m. Western York County races, including three for mayor, were decided about half an hour earlier.

All precincts reported for races in McConnells, Sharon and Smyrna as others around the county awaited results. Bill Nance won the mayoral race in McConnells, and Nicole Perkins was unopposed in Sharon.

Frances Faulkner in Smyrna ran unopposed. But 73% of voters there opted for a write-in vote, so it was not immediately clear if someone received more than Faulkner’s almost 27%. Write-in votes aren’t listed by name in election night reporting.

Early voting results came in a little after 7:30 p.m. Tuesday for races across the Rock Hill region. The 159 early voting ballots countywide represent just 0.24% turnout for the more than 66,000 registered voters eligible to cast ballots.

Across York County, seven mayoral seats were among 34 positions on Tuesday’s ballots spanning eight cities or towns.

The highest office up for grabs in the largest community Tuesday was the mayoral spot in Fort Mill. Savage was challenged by political newcomer Helms. Savage was vying for a third term, having first been elected mayor in 2015 after a stint on Fort Mill Town Council that dates back to 2005.

Savage led Helms with almost 71% of the early voting ballots, to 27% for the challenger. As of 9:15 p.m. Savage led 72% to 27 % with about 18% of precincts reporting.

Despite rapid community growth and change for decades now, Fort Mill isn’t a town prone to changing mayors. Savage is just the third mayor since voters elected Charlie Powers in 1983. Danny Funderburk, mayor from 2008 to 2016, bridges the gap between Powers and Savage.

New census data shows Fort Mill area is among fastest growing in the Carolinas

The other Fort Mill race Tuesday was for an at-large seat on Town Council. The contest pitted incumbent Lisa Cook against challenger Lindsay Curby. Cook is an area native who was first elected to council in 2015. Curby is a 10-year resident and community advocate who works and volunteers in local schools.

The final count saw Cook with almost 62% of the vote compared to 38% for Curby.

Incumbents ran unopposed for two other Fort Mill seats: Ronnie Helms and Chris Moody in Wards 2 and 4, respectively.

Beyond Fort Mill, there were races in York, Clover, Tega Cay and several western York County municipalities. Here are the latest results:

https://cue.misitemgr.com/#/main?name=A%20$106%20million%20sale%20sets%20new%20high%20mark%20for%20properties%20in%20the%20Rock%20Hill%20region&uri=https:%2F%2Fcue-webservice.misitemgr.com%2Fwebservice%2Fescenic%2Fcontent%2F281303993&mimetype=x-ece%2Fstory

Clover

Incumbent Holmes and challenger Legg squared off in the Clover race for mayor, with Legg winning 64% to 36% in complete but unofficial results. Legg makes the same transition from Clover Town Council member to mayor that Holmes did in 2017, when Holmes defeated seven-term mayor Donnie Grice by a single vote.

Four candidates contended for three open seats on Town Council. They include incumbents Brittany Farr and Amy Nivens, along with newcomers Mike Easler and Jason Manos.

Farr (27%), Easler (27%) and Nivens (22%) finished in the top three spots. Unofficially, Manos trailed the third-place Nivens by just four votes.

Tega Cay

Tega Cay is the only York County community on Tuesday’s ballot without its mayoral seat in a contest. Tega Cay does have five candidates for two Tega Cay City Council seats: Carmen Miller, Ron Kirby, Brian Carter, Adam Grabiec and Daniel Robert.

Miller (30%) and Carter (23%) finished on top, ahead of Kirby (19%), Grabiec (17%) and Robert (10%).

York

The easiest calls on election night come in York. Mayor Mike Fuesser and city council members Eddie Brown, Marion Ramsey and Stephanie Jarrett all return to their posts having run unopposed.

Western York County

McConnells had the only contested race among the smaller communities in western York County.

Bryan Jenkins and Bill Nance faced off for mayor. Nance won more than 60% of Tuesday’s vote compared with almost 33% for Jenkins. Larry Earl in Hickory Grove ran unopposed for mayor.

Also running for town council seats with as many open positions as candidates — essentially running unopposed — were Ollie Bankhead, Kevin Faulkner, Harry James Good and Kyle Wyatt in Hickory Grove; Liz Christenberry, Bill Covington, Jim Hoban and James Sciba in McConnells; Kimberly Linow, Amy Myott and Jessica Smith in Smyrna; and Herschel Brown, Jr., Ashley Glenn and Margarette Barnette Parrish in Sharon.

Write-in winners, final results

None of the contests across York County become official until votes and elections are certified this week. The county election board meets Thursday to certify provisional ballots.

There aren’t any single-seat races with more than two candidates, so York County is unlikely to see any runoff votes unless write-in votes cause one. Typically those happen when three or more candidates split votes for one elected seat, and no candidate gets a majority of votes.

In city or town council races contests where voters can choose several from a list of candidates, the top vote-getters don’t have to hit the 50% mark for election.

One oddity in this election cycle comes in the small western York County towns of Sharon and Smyrna. Each community lists three candidates on the ballot, but each has four town council seats open. In each case, a write-in vote could pick the fourth council member, no matter how small that write-in count may be.

“If a write-in vote occurs,” county election office spokeswoman Alison Mallard said Tuesday morning, “that person is notified and can accept. It only takes one.”

In Smyrna, the write-in option got 60% of the vote. So without names attached to write-ins, it’s unclear whether anyone except the top named candidate Linow finished in the top four of voting. In Sharon, write-ins fell below 5% but it’s unclear whether any one write-in finished ahead of the others, to earn a seat. All three named candidates received more votes than the entire write-in option.

York County has 100 precincts. Only 30 participated in Tuesday’s election as areas like Rock Hill didn’t have a contest. Those 30 precincts account for about 66,200 registered voters.