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By Jay King
HOMETOWN NEWS
The Town of Duncan has taken the last step in turning over authority for its municipal elections to the Spartanburg County Voter Registration and Elections office with final approval of an ordinance ceding authority to the county.
With the Duncan Town Council’s final approval, the next step requires the county council to pass an ordinance accepting the authority for the elections, and that ordinance will require three readings. After that, the move would have to be cleared by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Along with handing off responsibility for the elections to the county, Duncan’s ordinance requires a $500 filing fee for candidates and eliminates the requirement for petitions of candidacy. Because of the time required for the county’s approval and the Justice Department review, current council terms will be extended.
Seats in Wards 2 and 4 along with the mayor will not come up for election until June 2013 (instead of 2012) while the elections for Wards 1 and 3 would not come up until 2015 (instead of 2014).
The move to cede election authority to the county have been prompted by changes in state law that now require all election commission members and staff involved with elections to be certified. For most small municipalities the expense of sending election commissioners to Columbia for the weeklong training is both cost-prohibitive and difficult to schedule.
For the rest of the story, read this week’s Middle Tyger Times.
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