Rock Hill mayoral, Ward 5 candidates to square off in debate at Winthrop

Rock Hill voters will get at least one more chance Tuesday to see two remaining mayoral candidates in the same room before next week’s runoff election.

William “Bump” Roddey and John Gettys will speak at a 7 p.m. Tuesday debate at Winthrop University. The Oct. 31 runoff vote will decide who will become the city’s next mayor.

The free public event, moderated by political science professor Karen Kedrowski, will be in the Richardson Ballroom, in the DiGiorgio Campus Center.

Roddey, a York County Council member, earned 4,015 votes (45.22 percent) in last week’s general election. Gettys, the Rock Hill Sports Commission chair, earned 3,967 votes (44.68 percent).

Landscape architect Duane Christopher picked up 891 votes in the election, about 10 percent of the vote.

The debate will also feature the remaining candidates for Rock Hill’s City Council Ward 5 spot. In Ward 5, first-term incumbent Ann Williamson faces challenger Nikita Jackson.

Jackson (793 votes, 44.15 percent) led Williamson (601 votes, 33.46 percent) after last week’s election. The runoff for that seat also will be Oct. 31.

None of the candidates in the two races had more than half the votes in the Oct. 17 election. The runoff election will be decided by majority vote. A voter did not have to vote in the Oct. 17 election to be eligible to vote in the runoff.

Eligible voters can absentee vote 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday until Oct. 30 at the Office of the Board of Voter Registration and Elections of York County, 13 S. Congress St., York.

Voters must bring one of the following photo identifications:

▪  S.C. driver’s license

▪  S.C. DMV ID card or S.C. Concealed Weapons Permit

▪  Federal Military ID

▪  U.S. passport or Veterans Affairs card

▪  S.C. Voter Registration Card with photo, which can be obtained at the York County Elections Office

Longtime Rock Hill Mayor Doug Echols is stepping down after 28 years of public service, including the last 20 years as mayor.

Political scientists at Winthrop and York Technical College have projected that the runoff could have lower turnout than the general election because it’s an off-season election on Halloween.

Just over 18 percent of Rock Hill’s 48,321 registered voters made their pick last week for the city’s new mayor.

This story was originally published October 23, 2017 at 5:14 PM with the headline "Rock Hill mayoral, Ward 5 candidates to square off in debate at Winthrop."