Gerald Eaves and Carolyn Rutherford congratulate each other on their primary wins
Daniel Prince
236 total votes cast in the primaries; special election will be June 21
Amid extremely light voter turnout, Gerald Eaves and Carolyn Rutherford won their respective primaries for the Union County Council District 5 special election Tuesday.
Rutherford won with 81.4% of the vote over her challenger, James “J.R.” Rainwater. The final vote total was 162-37. Rutherford won every precinct except for Monarch Box 1, where she and Rainwater each received two votes.
Only 37 ballots were cast in the Republican primary, and the race was tied at 12 votes apiece until the final precinct reported. In the end, Eaves won over his challenger, Tamiann Adams, with 56.8% of the vote, 21-16. Adams won the Excelsior and Ward 3 precincts, while Eaves had more votes in Monarch Box 1, Ward 2, and Ward 4, Box 2. They tied in the number of absentee votes, and no Republican voters cast ballots in Ward 1 Box 1, Ward 1 Box 2, or Ward 4 Box 1.
Ward 4 Box 1 had the lowest turnout, with only 5 votes cast. Monarch Box 1 only had 7. The highest turnout was in Ward 2, with a total of 93 ballots cast, which was 39.4% of the total number of votes in the race.
After the results were in at election headquarters, WBCU News spoke with the Democratic winner Carolyn Rutherford about her reaction to the results:
(audio below story)
Rutherford and Eaves will face off in the special election for the County Council District 5 seat on Tuesday, June 21, one week after the main primaries, which will be held on June 14. The winner will fill the seat of council member Tommie Hill, who passed away earlier this year. That term will expire in 2024.