Fort Mill, Tega Cay voters offer preview of coming contests

Now the presidential primary votes in this state are in the rear-view mirror, people know how South Carolina voters feel about the candidates. But what about Fort Mill Township voters?

Below is a breakdown of how the two primary votes went locally, and what those decisions could mean for this year’s general election.

The demographics

York County has 153,583 registered voters. More than 38,000 of them, almost 25 percent, cast votes in the Republican primary. Just more than 14,000 voted in the Democratic primary, for a 9 percent turnout.

Fort Mill has 20 precincts. Tega Cay has three. Those precincts have a combined 43,691 registered voters. The biggest precincts are Fort Mill No. 1 (2,737 voters), Steele Creek (2,530), Fort Mill No. 2 (2,370) and Shoreline (2,312). The smallest are Carolina (1,200), Stateline (1,337) and Baxter (1,383).

Who voted Republican?

In 16 of 23 local precincts, at least 25 percent of registered voters cast ballots in the Republican primary. Highest percentages came from Orchard Park, Fort Mill No. 2 and Dobys Bridge, all with more than 30 percent. Orchard Park led with 34 percent.

In every local precinct, the top three vote-getters were Donald Trump, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. Trump won 14 precincts, finishing third only three times. Rubio won seven. Cruz won the remaining two. In Tega Cay, all three precincts voted Trump, Rubio and Cruz in that order, the most common finish locally.

Who voted Democrat?

Turnout ranged from 4.82 percent at Fort Mill No. 4 to 9.62 percent at Fort Mill No. 5. The most votes came from Fort Mill No. 1 (190), Windjammer (167), Palmetto (161) and Shoreline (156). Tega Cay cast more Democratic votes, by percentage, than Fort Mill.

But, the highest number of Democratic votes from a precinct still trailed the lowest number of Republican votes from a precinct by 67 votes.

The Democratic contest was a two-person race, with Hillary Clinton (63 percent) and Bernie Sanders (36 percent) collecting more than 99 percent of the vote countywide. The rest were write-ins. Clinton won 18 local precincts, Sanders the remaining five. Her biggest win came by 69 votes in Fort Mill No. 4, her smallest by a single vote in Fort Mill No. 2. Sanders won biggest in Baxter, by nine votes. His closest wins came in the Riverview and Shoreline precincts, each by three votes.

Why it matters

Along with helping decide presidential nominations, local primaries offer a glimpse of the voting population in the township. This year brings one of the few local elections where those demographics matter.

All seven York County Council seats, including three representing parts of Fort Mill or Tega Cay, come due this fall. Unlike Fort Mill Town Council, Tega Cay City Council and the Fort Mill School Board, the county seats involve partisan votes. Two of those three seats belong to Republicans, one to a Democrat.

In 2014, neither Michael Johnson, Christi Cox or Chad Williams had opposition in the general election. If multiple candidates from any party file for any of the three local seats this year, those parties will select a single candidate during the June 14 primaries. If any of the seats have candidates from multiple parties, the general election will decide the seat Nov. 8.

Filing for the county seats opens March 16, running through March 30. While those seats could be decided this summer or by single-candidate filings, a fall contest likely would bring out the highest voter turnout in years.

In 2014, York County voters cast more than 58,000 votes in the general election, good for a 39 percent voter turnout. Despite a smaller population in 2012, the last time a presidential race made the ballot, more than 100,000 York County voters cast ballots. Those votes represent a 70 percent voter turnout.

This story was originally published February 29, 2016 at 4:47 PM with the headline "Fort Mill, Tega Cay voters offer preview of coming contests."