Many races still outstanding the morning after Election Day in South Carolina
Here’s where things stand in the Richland County school district races on Wednesday morning.
Here’s where various state Senate and House races stand tonight, with about 60% of precincts still outstanding as of 1 a.m. Wednesday.
And a wrap up of the congressional races around the state.
A tale of two counties
The two big Midlands counties are continuing to slowly come in. With 41% of the vote in in Richland County, several state legislative, county council and school board races were still outstanding.
In Lexington County, 96% of the vote was in as of midnight. In one contested race for Lexington County Council, the Republican candidate Gene “Bimbo” Jones leads Democrat Bobby Porter with 68% of the vote.
End of the night for congressional candidates
In the 1st District, Republican Nancy Mace defeated Democratic incumbent Joe Cunningham. The Associated Press projected Mace would win shortly after 2 a.m., as she received 51.3% of the votes with 60% of the counties reporting, according to the South Carolina Election Commission.
Senate candidates speak
Lindsey Graham declaring victory in the U.S. Senate tonight.
Earlier, U.S. Senate candidate Jaime Harrison speaks after his race called for Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham.
U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, who won re-election tonight, spoke at a Columbia election watch party for U.S. Senate candidate Jaime Harrison tonight.
U.S. Senate call
At 9:57 p.m., U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham won re-election to a fourth term in the U.S. Senate, according to the Associated Press.
Graham had been pressed by Democrat Jaime Harrison in the tightest, and most expensive, re-election race in his three re-election races. The S.C. Election Commission currently has Graham leading Harrison 55% to 43% with 46% of precincts statewide reporting.
Congressional races are also moving in the Republicans’ way. At 9:52 p.m., U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman has won re-election, according to the Associated Press.
Norman currently has 60% of the vote to Democrat Moe Brown’s 39% with 42% percent of precincts reporting in the 5th District, centered on Rock Hill.
At 10 p.m., U.S. Rep. Tim Rice, R-Myrtle Beach, was declared the winner in the 7th District by the AP. Rice leads Democrat Melissa Ward Watson 60% to 39% in the district centered on the Grand Stand, with 75% of the vote in there.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan was re-elected in the 3rd District. With 91% of the votes reported, the Republican held a 71 to 28 percent advantage over Democratic challenger Hosea Cleveland.
Fellow Republican William Timmons was leading in his bid to retain his seat as the U.S. Rep. in District 4. Timmons received more than 58% of the votes, compared to Democratic challenger Kim Nelson’s 40%, with about half of the votes reported by the S.C. Election Commission.
At both Senate candidates’ victory parties
At a victory party for Lindsey Graham in Columbia, homebuilders Josh and Aly Seppala of Greenville were surprised the race was so close.
“I didn’t think liberals would be coming here and trying to take Lindsey’s seat, With all that money, over $100 million, that tells me how important Lindsey’s seat is,” Aly Seppala said.
Shortly before 10 p.m., Graham led Harrison 54% to 44% with 44% of the vote in.
For the Seppalas the key to Graham’s victory was the Supreme Court confirmation of Amy Coney Barret and people remembering his defense of Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
“Because of Brett Kavanaugh … the world watched him say what he felt. That was heartfelt, that was the real Lindsey. When he came out and did what he did for ACB, there was no surprise,” Josh Seppala said.
Donna Gottschall, 62 of Greenville, said she wasn’t concerned about Graham’s chances in the race.
“I wasn’t concerned that he would lose, I was concerned for the way that he was treated by the other side,” Gottschall said. “When his opponent Jamie Harrison came up and started pulling for (Bill) Bledsoe who wasn’t even in the race anymore, I thought that was very underhanded, kind of cutthroat.”
Unlike the Republicans’ party, and due to strict COVID-19 measures, Jaime Harrison’s watch party outside the Hunter-Gatherer Brewery at the Hangar was largely empty but for campaign staff and a slew of reporters, all who were given temperature checks when they walked in.
Reporters were penned off, though no supporters were outside the brewery. Outside the taproom was a stage and two screens flipping between a shot of the stage with South Carolina and United States’ flags behind. Harrison’s large RV was lit in the back.
Results coming in
At 9 p.m., U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham has pushed ahead of Jaime Harrison in his re-election race, 55% to 44%. With 20% of precincts reporting, Graham has 264,000 votes to Harrison’s 211,000.
Harrison was running a tight race in what turned into a very expensive and ad-heavy campaign, the closest Graham has faced for re-election in his three terms in the Senate. The Upstate Republican has served in the Senate since 2002, when he succeeded the long-serving Strom Thurmond.
The vote is also narrowing in the closely watched District 1 race for a coastal U.S. House seat. U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham has 53% of the vote with 18% reporting, compared to 47% for Nancy Mace.
At 9:13 p.m., U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan won re-election in his Upstate congressional district, according to the Associated Press. Duncan has an early 69% to 30% lead over Democrat Hosea Cleveland, with 28% of precincts in the 3rd District reporting.
In one of the most closely watched legislative races in the Midlands, Democrat Rhodes Bailey has a narrow lead over Rep. Kirkman Finlay, 50% to 49%. Only 13 votes separated the two with 11% of precincts reporting in District 75.
Early congressional results
The first local results are coming in from the S.C. Election Commission.
With 2% of precincts reporting in Lexington County, U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-Springdale, is leading in his home county with 62% of the vote to 37% for Democrat Adair Burroughs. Those numbers represent 7,800 votes for Wilson to 4,600 for Burroughs.
In Richland County, the numbers in District 2 are nearly reversed. With 3% of precincts in, Burroughs is leading with 64% (or 4,200 votes) to 35% for Wilson (2,300 votes).
Across the district, Wilson has 62% of the vote to Burroughs’ 37%.
In the closely watched 1st District race along the coast, U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham, D-Charleston, is leading with 65% of the vote (16,800 votes) to Republican Nancy Mace’s 34% (8,700 votes).
Statewide, Democrat Jaime Harrison has an early lead with 56% of the vote (54,400 votes) to 42% for U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-Seneca, or 41,000 votes.
PRESIDENTIAL CALL
The Associated Press is projecting that President Donald Trump has won South Carolina.
The Palmetto State will add nine electoral votes to Trump’s tally Tuesday night. The call came at 7:56 p.m.
The AP has also called Kentucky and West Virginia for the president, giving Trump 22 electoral votes early, while Biden has 16 with projected wins in Vermont and Virginia. The winner will need 270 votes in the electoral college to win the White House.
Statewide, eight out of 2,263 precincts have officially reported their results, according to the S.C. Election Commission.
Polls close on 2020
Polls closed at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Anyone still in line at 7 p.m. will be able to vote.
Soon votes will be tallied at precincts across the state, and then transported to county election offices to be tallied again. County election officials have also been working to count mail-in and absentee ballots throughout the day.
Vote-counters are hoping to have results to announce before the end of the night.
Soon, we’ll start getting the first results in the presidential election, a tight U.S. Senate race, congressional races and other elections across South Carolina. We may also get the first races called by the Associated Press early in the evening.
But with an unprecedented number of people this year voting absentee, it may take longer for election workers to count all the ballots, so it may be a while before we get all the results, and it may not even happen tonight.
Stay with us as we update this page with the latest results and election news through the night. Earlier on Tuesday, polling places in South Carolina have reported some minor issues and lower than usual turnout after so many voters cast their ballots before Election Day.
Voting malfunction
Voting officials in Dorchester County have said around 13,500 ballots will not be counted on election night because of a card-reading error. The S.C. Election Commission said those ballots will have to be read at a later time after the election night count in the Lowcountry.
That failure could delay results in a closely watched congressional race in the 1st District between U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham, D-Charleston, and Republican candidate Nancy Mace.
Depending on turnout, the number of outstanding ballots in Dorchester County could account for 0.5% of the state’s votes.
Turnout light late
After an explosion of absentee voting in the days ahead of Tuesday, turnout was light at some precincts late in the day. More poll workers than voters were seen at Lexington Middle School shortly before 6 p.m.
Chris Friedrich, 51, voted 45 minutes before the polls closed on Tuesday. She said she always votes late because of her job as a hair salon owner, but that she’s never felt more invested than she does this year.
“Hopefully our country will still continue to be great,” she said.
Out at Caughman Road Elementary School, poll workers sat by patiently awaiting any last minute voters, but few showed from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Near the corner of the road, state House candidate Jermaine Johnson and supporters were holding signs and grilling out in anticipation of a high Election Day turnout, though Johnson found himself stuck with a stockpile of cooked food with no one to give it to. Nevertheless, Johnson said it’s exciting that fact so many people didn’t wait until the last day to cast their ballots.
“It means (voters) are staying safe and that they’re taking heed to the COVID situation,” he said. “I hope this type of absentee voting sticks because it also helps candidates, like myself, on the day of.”
Lower Richland High School appeared to be the most lively of the precincts in Lower Richland, largely due to the free food truck and DJ, courtesy of School Board member Cheryl Harris.
Despite the atmosphere, there was no wait time to vote as polls were closing, a trend seen around Lower Richland most of the day.
“The past few days it’s been pretty hectic and pretty crowded,” Harris said. “Today, it was pretty steady but as of 12 o’ clock it tapered off. And as I drove around to all the precincts in my area, I realized it was the same across the board.”
Reporters Caitlin Byrd, Andrew Caplan and Chiara Eisner contributed.
This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 6:20 PM.
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