ORANGEBURG COUNTY, S.C. — When voters cast their ballots for sheriff next week, incumbent Sheriff Leroy Ravenell will go up against Bubba Johnson for the democratic nomination.
With no Republican opposition in November, the winner of Tuesday's primary race will in all likelihood be sheriff.
Ravenell says if re-elected, he wants to continue his efforts in improving technology, such as cameras throughout the county, body cams, data collection and continuing to build trust with the members in the community.
“When the polls close on Tuesday evening, there going to be some votes on both sides. Hopefully I have the most votes," said Ravenell. "The votes on the other side is the ones that I want to gain trust of those people because if they vote for somebody else that means that they’re not happy with me or something that we’re doing or something that I have here, so I want to gain the trust of the people because I have to serve everybody."
Johnson says if elected, his main focus would be on increasing officer presence on the roads throughout the county and helping reoffenders become functioning members of society.
“Crime starts on a misdemeanor level and it graduates to a felony level," said Johnson. "But our goal is to catch those offenders on the misdemeanor level and actually divert them to equitable job placement, job training and connecting them with those natural resources within our various communities to improve them and make them a more productive citizen of our societies.”
Orangeburg resident Maurashia Frazier says she would like to see things change when it comes to crime with young people.
“Gun violence, it doesn’t make it no better that now that you can carry, you know, the kids killing each other with the guns, everything like that, so I hope that does change," said Frazier. “I want them to rebuild, think about the growing community that’s going to get old in Orangeburg, think about what we need, what we want, and what's going to make the crime rate go down, which is more stuff for the youth to do.”
Jelanie Irick says she would like to see faster response times from the sheriff’s office.
“I would like them to get there a little faster when you call, but with the short amount of people that they have, it’s not easy for them to do that," said Irick. "My son used to be a deputy so I kinda know how that is. I mean, sometimes he would be on the west side of the county and have to go all the way on the east, so it was kind of rough.”
Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, July 11. Early voting continues through June 7th, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.