YORK COUNTY, S.C. (CN2 NEWS) York County Council and County Voter and Elections leaders, discussing voting cycles. Several years ago, York County’s municipalities agreed to transfer election power to the county.
Now, each municipality has elections every odd year in November, except the City of Rock Hill, holding its election in October. Some think they should all line up together.
Wanda Hemphill with York County’s Voter Registration and Elections office coming before York County council discussing elections. With elections set to come up this fall, she says she has a goal of getting all York County municipalities on the same voting schedule every November of an odd numbered year.
“So we have eight of the nine municipalities on that cycle and reciprocating ordinances were passed for the transfer of powers, and the last being the City of York.”
Wanda sharing that having all nine municipalities on the same schedule could lessen voter confusion.
“It does create some confusion with the public and if we were able to get them on the same cycle it would be beneficial from a logistics standpoint, some cost sharing. But then also to be able to better utilize the media and make it like a municipal general election day and that is one of the goals of the state election commission,” says Hemphill.
As county leaders continue discussing building across municipalities, there could be a big change coming right here to the City of York. Delayed 2020 census data, because of the pandemic, could mean a delayed election.
York’s Mayor Mike Fuesser saying, “There is discussion about delaying them. The timeline would be, according to city manager, we need to let the county know by July.”
Delays in census data means delays in re-zoning which could impact election results and how the City of York more than 4,000 voters are being represented. The rescheduled election would also mean extended terms. York’s city council has three seats running in 2021.
“I do know there’s probably gonna be some opposition in all the seats so it is what it is. It’s tough, this council has a tough decision to make and we’ll make the decision and will move onto the next thing,” says Mayor Fuesser.
In the video above, CN2’s Rachel Richardson has more updates on the County’s voting goals and also learning why York’s upcoming election could be delayed.
