City election filing is coming to close. Will Rock Hill even have a vote?

The deadline for candidate filing in this fall’s municipal elections is coming up, and the next 24 hours may decide if some voters in Rock Hill will even have a chance to vote Oct. 20.

With a 5 p.m. Friday deadline looming over the race for three seats on the Rock Hill City Council, only one of three races is contested. Erick Woody O’Neal filed Wednesday to run against Kathy Pender in Ward 2, which covers the north-central part of Rock Hill.

Elsewhere, Sandra Oborokumo in Ward 1 and Kevin Sutton in Ward 3 are running unopposed as of Thursday, according to the candidate tracker on SCVotes.org.

If no challengers file before the close of business Friday, by state law those candidates will be deemed elected, and city voters in two of six council wards might not even have the opportunity to cast a ballot.

The city’s other three council members and Mayor Doug Echols don’t face re-election until 2017.

The close of candidate filing isn’t the last word on the matter. Write-in candidates have a 14-day period after Friday to declare their campaigns with the York County Elections and Voter Registration Office, said deputy elections director Allen Helms. If at least one write-in candidate announces, the city will hold an election in the contested ward.

Eight other York County municipalities are also electing officials this fall. Filing for candidates in Sharon closed at noon Thursday. Beverly Blair was the only candidate to file for the town’s mayor, but six candidates will compete on Nov. 3 for four at-large Town Council seats: Bob Barnette, Jeremy Bradham, Elaine Cheek, Thomas Childers, Donald Krapp and Bobby Stephenson.

Some offices still have no candidates who have filed. In McConnells, no one has filed for the Town Council race, according to SCVotes. The town’s longtime mayor, John Harshaw, died Aug. 9 after 21 years in office, and so far, Sonny Metker is the only candidate to replace him.

The towns of Hickory Grove and Smyrna – the smallest incorporated municipality in South Carolina, with just 45 residents – currently have no candidates filed for either mayor or Town Council. The deadline to file for all three towns is 5 p.m. Sept. 4, which is also the deadline for candidates in Clover, Tega Cay and York. Candidates in Fort Mill have until noon Sept. 4 to file.

If no candidates file by the deadline in a race, the towns will hold an open write-in election where anyone who receives the most votes – even if it’s only one – will be duly elected to a full term.

Candidates for all seats should file at the Board of Voter Registration and Elections of York County, 13 S. Congress St., York.

This story was originally published August 20, 2015 at 4:50 PM with the headline "City election filing is coming to close. Will Rock Hill even have a vote?."