Dalhi Myers, Bernice Scott in runoff for Lower Richland council seat

It will take one more election to decide who will fill Kelvin Washington’s vacated Richland County Council seat between now and the November general election.

Political newcomer Dalhi (pronounced DALE-ya) Myers and council veteran Bernice Scott – who represented District 10 for 20 years before her son-in-law, Washington, was elected in 2008 – will face each other in a runoff election June 14.

Helen Taylor Bradley, who was trying for her fourth time to become the District 10 representative, finished a close third in voting behind Scott but did not make the runoff ballot.

Myers, a lawyer who grew up in Hopkins, recently moved back to Lower Richland. She bested Scott by just more than 100 votes. Efforts by The State to reach Myers on Tuesday night were unsuccessful.

But no one got the required majority plus one vote to avoid a runoff.

If Myers wins the runoff, she will end 28 years of single-family representation for the council district that covers Hopkins, Gadsden and Eastover.

“The whole thing boils down to one thing,” Scott said late Tuesday. “The seat belongs to the people. ... I’m running to help. I’m not running to do anything else, so I’m good.”

The special election was necessary after Gov. Nikki Haley removed Washington from his council seat for failing to file income tax returns for three years.

About 2,000 out of more than 19,000 registered voters in the district cast votes Tuesday.

Five democrats – Bradley, Myers, Scott, Mary Jackson Kirkland and Jerome Marvin Miller – were vying to replace Washington.

Myers received about 39 percent of the votes; Scott, 34 percent; Bradley, 25 percent, Kirkland, 2 percent; Miller, 0.5 percent.

The runoff winner will sit on council until after the November general election, when voters will decide among the same five candidates to serve a four-year council term.

June 14 also is the day of the statewide general primary election to decide candidates for the November ballot. District 10 voters will cast two ballots that day – one for the special election runoff, and one for the general election primary.

Scott said she was disappointed in the low voter turnout on Tuesday but believes the low numbers could have been the result of confusion with two elections being held so close together. She said she expects turnout to be higher on June 14 and the vote margin to be wider between the candidates.

“I’m delighted that I’m in the number” for the runoff, Scott said. “Win, lose or draw, I’m still going to be Bernice Scott ... and I’m still going to help people all I can.”

This story was originally published May 31, 2016 at 8:59 PM.