Baddourah won’t be on Tuesday’s Columbia City Council ballot

Columbia City Councilman Moe Baddourah’s name will not be on Tuesday’s election ballot because he is the automatic winner since no one filed to challenge his second term.

Baddourah will begin serving his new term for District 3 on Jan. 1, as will the two other representatives who win a citywide and a District 2 seats. Those terms will last through Dec. 31, 2019.

Baddourah is the winner because of a state law that stipulates that an unchallenged municipal incumbent automatically wins a seat if no one files as an opponent two weeks after the official close of a filing date.

District 3 includes much of downtown and the areas around the University of South Carolina. It historically has high voter turnout rates. Baddourah was elected to the seat in April 2012, but his and other council members’ terms were shortened by six months when elections were moved from springtime to the fall in odd number years.

This story was originally published October 28, 2015 at 5:10 PM.