Hamilton a likely winner in race for Fort Mill, Rock Hill seat on York County Council

York County Council only had one contested race Tuesday night, and it looks like Joel Hamilton will win it.

With all but one of 18 precincts reporting results as of mid-morning Wednesday, Republican Hamilton led Democrat Montrio Belton by more than 600 votes in District 7.

Hamilton brought in more than 53 percent of the almost 9,900 votes counted to that point.

All results are unofficial until certified by the county election department.

Belton and Hamilton are attorneys in Rock Hill. Belton lives in Fort Mill, Hamilton in Rock Hill.

District 7 includes downtown Fort Mill, from U.S. 21 Bypass and Old Nation Road to the Springfield Parkway area. It covers high-growth areas of the Fort Mill Parkway, along with Kingsley.

The district runs into Rock Hill, where it spans the Cherry Road corridor and Riverwalk areas. It goes down I-77 to the Rock Hill Galleria, also covering the Winthrop University area.

Councilman Chad Williams began representing the district after he was elected in 2009, but opted not to run for another term.

The only precinct not showing results as of Wednesday morning was Fort Mill No. 1. While living in Fort Mill could give Belton a boost there, returns from the other precincts show positive signs for Hamilton.

Only one of seven precincts on the Fort Mill side of the Catawba River went with Belton. On the Rock Hill side, Belton won four of 10 precincts.

Of the 17 reported precincts, seven of them brought in more total votes than the 658 separating Hamilton and Belton. Rock Hill No. 7 and Celanese precincts each counted more than 1,000 votes.

Fort Mill No. 3, which borders the lone holdout precinct, brought in more than 900 votes. Fort Mill No. 4, Belton’s one win north of the river and a border to the holdout, brought in almost 800 votes.

The only other contested County Council race Tuesday night in York, Lancaster or Chester counties was the District 4 race in Lancaster County. Democractic incumbent Larry Honeycutt faced Republican challenger Don Duve.

With all precincts reporting, Honeycutt had 53 percent of the more than 4,000 votes.

Honeycutt, 80, is a three-term council member who is retired from a career with a paper and packaging manufacturer. Honeycutt ran on his record, pointing to a bolstered sheriff’s office, upgraded fire service and other public service improvements in his time on council. Honeycutt said before the election that he didn’t foresee partisan politics mattering.

“They vote for me for what I’ve tried to do for our county,” he said.

Other county council seats won Tuesday night, either by unopposed candidates or primary winners who defeated their only competition this summer, include districts 3 (Robert Winkler) and 4 (William “Bump” Roddey) in York County, districts 2 (Charlene McGriff) and 6 (Allen Blackmon) in Lancaster County and districts 1 (Brad Jordan), 2 (Mike Vaughn) and 5 (Mary Guy). Shane Stuart also won unopposed as supervisor in Chester County.

This story was originally published November 6, 2018 at 10:08 PM.