Early voting in Sumter runoffs set; 2 sites available for eligible voters Wednesday through Friday

Sumter County has five runoff elections set for Tuesday, Nov. 22, two days before Thanksgiving, but there will be early voting this week if voters in those districts want to take advantage of it.

Pat Jefferson, executive director of the Sumter County Voter Registration and Elections Office, spoke Friday on two sites that will offer the early voting option to voters in four school board districts and city council Ward 1, where candidates are in a runoff.

Early voting will be available Wednesday through Friday at the old Sumter County Courthouse, 141 N. Main St., and at the former F.J. DeLaine Elementary School, 5355 Cane Savannah Road, Wedgefield. Hours of operation at both sites all three days will be 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., she added.

Early voting will allow registered voters to vote outside of runoff Election Day - Nov. 22 - without an excuse. Like previously, voters will need to provide one form of photo identification, Jefferson added.

Runoff elections are necessary between the top two vote-getters in a race, per local legislation, when no one candidate receives 50% of the vote plus one vote on Election Day.

The four Sumter school board races that will have a runoff are the new districts 1, 2, 4 and 8 after the local Board of Trustees was divided into nine single-member districts for the first time with the 2022 election. Sumter City Council Ward 1 will also feature a runoff.

Jefferson added if particular voters requested an absentee ballot in early voting for the Nov. 8 election, they will also automatically receive one by mail for the runoff.

Also, on Friday, the voter registration and elections office's board of directors certified Tuesday's election results.