BAMBERG - In a rare midsummer election, Bamberg County voters return to the polls today for a special Democratic primary to fill the unexpired term of veteran treasurer Ann Clayton, who retired in April.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.

“It’s a bad time of year. A lot of people are on vacation,” said Patti Jeffcoat, director of voter registration and elections.

As of midday Monday, Jeffcoat said, approximately 45 people had used the absentee voting machines, including mostly walk-ins and about 20 who returned absentee paper ballots. That’s about normal, she said, for a special election.

Still, Jeffcoat is hoping for a good turn out for the special primary in which the interim Bamberg County treasurer and her challenger, a former Denmark city administrator and school board trustee, are running.

Interim Treasurer Alice Johnson and Pat Anduze, who served on the Denmark-Olar District 2 School Board for a little less than a year, are the two candidates seeking the unexpired term of the county’s 35-year veteran financial officer. Former treasurer Ann Clayton, whose four-year term ends in 2011, resigned effective April 30.

Johnson, an administrative assistant in the magistrate’s office, was appointed to fill the vacancy after the Governor’s Office issued an executive order. Initially, county officials thought the gubernatorial appointment would allow the county to avoid a special election. However, at the last minute, they were notified that a special election would be necessary.

Explaining that “it just varies by office,” state Election Commission spokesman Garry Baum said earlier that state law mandates a special election must be held to fill vacancies in the office of treasurer.

A third Democratic candidate, Jimmie Bishop, withdrew her candidacy just minutes after filing. A seven-year employee of the Treasurer’s Office, Bishop says she was told by county officials, that because of the federal Hatch Act, she would have to quit her job to run for the partisan office.

No Republican filed for the office. The winner of the primary will be on a special ballot in the general election on Nov. 4.

Any registered Bamberg County voter is eligible to participate in the special Democratic primary.

Bamberg County has a total of 8,083 registered voters. Of those, 4,873 are black, 3,157 are white and 53 are designated “other.”

T&D Government Writer Tucker Lyon can be reached by e-mail at tlyon@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5545.

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