Most of the Confederate flag ‘no’ votes came from Upstate and York County

After 13 hours of debate, the S.C. House of Representatives took its final vote early Thursday morning to remove the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds.

After an initial 93-27 vote in favor of striking the flag from a pole at the Confederate Soldier Monument outside the Capitol building, the final vote came in at 94-20.

Between the two votes, only Rep. Craig Gagnon, R-Abbeville, switched his vote from “no” to “yes.” Six others who initially voted “no” were recorded as “not voting” on the final tally.

The map accompanying this story shows how the votes against removing the Confederate battle flag were largely concentrated in three clusters around the state: the Upstate, Lexington and Aiken counties – and parts of York County.

Half of the final 20 “no” votes were cast by representatives from Upstate districts in and around the Greenville/Spartanburg area. Three more representatives from that area initially voted “no,” but were recorded as “not voting” on the final vote.

Representatives from four districts that include parts of York County – Gary Simrill (central), Greg Delleney (southeastern), Dennis Moss (southwestern) and Steve Moss (northwestern) – cast “no” votes and stuck with them.

Among those four, only Simrill’s district lies fully within York County. Delleney’s district is centered on Chester County, while the districts represented by Dennis Moss and Steve Moss lean more heavily toward Cherokee County.

The remaining six “no” votes were cast by two representatives from each of Lexington, Aiken and Horry counties.

The other three representatives who initially voted “no” but were recorded as “not voting” on the final tally were from Lexington, Horry and Berkeley counties.

Map design: Rob Barge/hardwaregraphics.com.

This story was originally published July 10, 2015 at 8:45 PM.