Candidate filing for Rock Hill’s 2021 mayoral election opens Wednesday. What to know.
Filing for Rock Hill’s 2021 mayoral race opened Wednesday.
Candidates seeking to become mayor have until 5 p.m. Aug. 20 to file at the York County Office of Voter Registration and Elections for Rock Hill’s Oct. 19 election.
The city’s upcoming election was scheduled to include three ward races in addition to the mayoral seat. However, city officials decided last month to postpone the ward elections by several months due to a delayed release of 2020 census data, which is needed for redistricting.
The mayoral race will take place as planned since it will not be impacted by redistricting. The city’s Wards 4, 5 and 6 races will be held at a later date after the redistricted wards have been approved by city council.
A familiar field
Two familiar foes already have announced their mayoral candidacies.
Mayor John Gettys and York County Councilman William “Bump” Roddey, who ran against each other for the seat in 2017, have announced plans to run again. When the two ran in 2017, city residents elected Rock Hill’s first new mayor in two decades after then-Mayor Doug Echols stepped down.
Roddey, who is currently serving his fifth term on county council, lost to Gettys by 515 votes in a runoff after neither candidate secured a majority in the city’s general election.
The deadline to register to vote in the mayoral election is in mid-September. In-person absentee voting for the race will start on Sept. 20 at the county elections office.
Split races
Rock Hill is required to redraw its six wards every 10 years based on new U.S. Census Bureau data. Delays related to COVID-19 slowed the bureau’s original redistricting data delivery and now municipalities will not receive all the necessary data until Sept. 30, according to the 2020 census timeline.
The late delivery does not give Rock Hill officials enough time to redraw ward lines for the October election, officials said. Now, city officials plan to hold the ward races roughly 90 days after council approves the redistricted ward maps — likely in spring 2022.
At a redistricting information session led by city officials this week, deputy city manager Steven Gibson said census officials have said the city will receive the data needed to begin redistricting by Aug. 16.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” he told the handful of residents at the session. “I’d estimate — just to be comfortable — we’d need another week of slack, I’d say until the end of August, to get that data in a format that we can do something with. It’s going to be raw data.”
The U.S. Constitution requires voting districts to be equal in population, and with the significant amount of growth and development that has occurred in the city over the last 10 years, officials anticipate the six wards are “out of kilter,” Gibson said.
And the city’s 2020 population estimates using building permits show Wards 4, 5 and 6 have each grown to include an additional 1,500-plus residents, officials said.
Once the city receives the necessary census information, Rock Hill officials will work to get the district lines redrawn, officials said.
A separate filing period for the Wards 4, 5, and 6 elections will be determined and advertised at a later date, elections officials said. Councilman John Black represents Ward 4. Councilwoman Nikita Jackson represents Ward 5. Councilman Jim Reno represents Ward 6.
This story was originally published July 21, 2021 at 12:01 PM.
