SUMTER, S.C. — Nearly half of the town of Mayesville has shown up to vote in their local election today.
A total of 256 voters showed up at the polls, along with eight absentee ballot requests and 16 early voting ballots cast, according to the unofficial results.
As of Tuesday night, Chris Brown has been named the unofficial mayor, with unofficial results showing Cynthia Massingill and Jasaad Rahgee Ricks as the town council members.
Throughout the day, Mayesville residents came to the local fire station to cast their ballots.
"Because I want to make sure we put the right people in place in this town," lifetime Mayesville resident Delores Woods says about why she showed up to vote in the local election.
"I'm concerned with all the towns, but this town is my primary voting place and I believe that we should have the right people in office, not just anybody but the person that knows Mayesville and is going to take a account for what they're doing to Mayesville and in Mayesville and for Mayesville."
"Voting is so important," polling clerk Bevlin Collier said. "You get things done in your area, and people expect things to be done, but they don't want to work and get those things, so you need to come out and vote."
Collier tells me she's helping people cast their ballot, along with the other poll workers; she says they have been busy.
"I'm surprised," Collier says. "I've worked over here before and the crowd was not this big so this has been a huge improvement."
Sumter County Director of Election Pat Jefferson says the turnout is exciting.
"I am happy with the turnout today," Jefferson said, smiling. "With it being an off year and it's a municipality election, and I do know a lot of elections are going on in the state of South Carolina, but there's a small re-election, but it's going quite well, and we're grateful for the turnout."
A turnout from residents like Woods, who says the process was easy.
"It was too smooth," Woods said. "It was just simple, 1-2-3, and that was it."
"For one, something for the children to do that's in this town," Woods said regarding what she hopes to see from her elected officials. "They have nothing basically to do, so I would like to see some kind of entertainment come in for the children."
"I would like to see some of these old buildings either get renovated or torn out completely and not just standing," Woods said. "Even though they say there's a lot of historical things in town, I still want to see some changes, new buildings, new plants coming in, anything that's going to improve the environment around here and the economy."
Those election results will be certified on Thursday morning at the Sumter County Voter Registration Office.