Odom v. Town of McBee Election Comm'n

Citations

• 831 S.E.2d 429
• 427 S.C. 305

Syllabus

This is an appeal arising from a McBee Town Council election contest commenced by candidate Glenn Odom. We affirm the circuit court's decision to remand the proceedings to the McBee Municipal Election Commission. We modify the circuit court's order in two ways: first, we hold section 5-15-130 of the South Carolina Code (2004), standing alone, requires the four votes to be counted second, to the extent that the circuit court's decision can be read to order the Commission to declare Odom a prevailing candidate without the four votes first being counted, we hold the four votes must first be counted before the results of the election can be determined. We remand to the Commission and order it to unseal the four provisional votes and apply those votes to the vote totals of the candidate(s) for whom the votes were cast, with the results of the election to then be declared accordingly.