Early voting begins for Laurens mayoral run-off
Mayor Nathan Senn
Early voting for the City of Laurens mayoral run-off election began this morning at the Laurens County Office of Elections and Voter Registration on Bolt Drive.
The run-off between incumbent Mayor Nathan Senn and challenger Randy Garrett is scheduled for Tuesday (March 21). Polls in the city will be open from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesday.
Early voting is scheduled for 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. today, Thursday and Friday. There is no early voting on Monday.
Absentee voters can submit their votes by mail only, and the deadline to apply for an absentee ballot was this past Friday.
The increasingly tense mayoral race was thrown into a run-off when third candidate and city Councilwoman Alicia Sullivan pulled 26% of the vote in last week’s election.
Senn topped the ballot with 40% and Garrett 34%, but neither got to the 50%-plus-1 plateau needed to avoid the run-off election.
On Tuesday, Sullivan publicly threw her support behind Garrett at a press conference in downtown Laurens, while on Monday Senn announced th
Randy Garrett
at he had received endorsements from three other members of the city council Marian “Blonde” Miller, Cassandra Campbell and Sarah Latimore.
Senn is seeking a second four-year term as mayor after defeating then incumbent John Stankus in 2019.
“We’re going to try and answer as many questions from the people as we can, and let them know the plan for the next four years,” Senn said of his strategy for the run-off election. “As King Dixon used to say, onward and upward.”
Garrett said he deems getting to the run-off a success.
“We accomplished our goal, and that was to get to a run-off,” Garrett said. “We’re going to have to work hard . . . to get the voters back out, and we’re going to work hard.”
According to statistics provided by the county elections office, 2,139 or 23.9% of registered and eligible voters in the city cast ballots in the race. Voters must reside inside the city limits of Laurens in order to vote in this election.
