Residents in the City of Saluda turned out for this year’s municipal election more than any other local town at 47 percent, according to unofficial results from the Polk County Board of Elections.
Tryon voters had a 31 percent turnout for the Tuesday, Nov. 5 election, with Columbus seeing a 14 percent turnout and Landrum a 7.5 percent turnout.
Saluda has 518 registered voters with 246 voters turning out this year. Of Saluda’s total, only 42 voted early.
Tryon has 1,422 registered voters with 438 voting for Tuesday’s election. Of the total, Tryon had the highest early voting total in the county with 152 early votes.
Columbus has 787 registered voters with 111 of those casting votes for Tuesday’s election. Of Columbus’ total, 50 Columbus people voted early.
There are 2,570 registered voters at the Landrum United Methodist Church with Tuesday’s election seeing 195 voters.
Winners for Tuesday’s election included newcomers sweeping council seats and the mayor of Tryon as well as for Saluda council. Jim Wright won Tryon’s mayor seat, along with Bill Ingham and Happy McLeod taking the council seats.
In Saluda, Mayor Fred Baisden retained his seat while both commissioner seats were taken by newcomers Mark Oxtoby and Carolyn Ashburn. Columbus saw a newcomer as the high vote getter in Josh Denton, with incumbents Ricky McCallister and Margaret Metcalf retaining their council seats.
In Landrum, incumbent council member Billy Inman retained his seat, along with Randy Wohnig and Tammy Wells Cox winning the other two open seats.
The votes will be made official on Tuesday, Nov. 12 in Polk County when the Polk County Board of Elections will canvass the votes.