The unofficial City of Myrtle Beach election results are available

Here are the unofficial results from Tuesday’s Myrtle Beach municipal election.  It appears that Brenda Bethune won re-election as Mayor, with incumbent City Council members Mike Lowder, Jackie Hatley and Gregg Smith winning new four-year Council terms outright in today’s voting.  Here are the preliminary vote totals from this evening. 
 
MAYOR (ONE SEAT)
Brenda Bethune                              3,289
Tammie B. Durant                              199
Gene Ho                                          1,155
William “Bill” D. McClure                 1,153
C.D. Rozsa                                            84
Write-In                                                 8
TOTAL VOTES CAST                         5,888

CITY COUNCIL (THREE SEATS)
Alex Fogel                                       1,686
Jackie Hatley                                   3,501
Mike Lowder                                   3,847
John Newman                                 1,995 
Gregg Smith                                    3,333
Write-In                                                73
TOTAL VOTES CAST                        14,435
 
In order to win a seat outright, a City Council candidate needed a minimum of 2,407 votes based on tonight’s unofficial totals.  That “magic number” is determined by dividing the total number of votes cast by the number of seats available (three), and then dividing the result by two – plus one.  In order to win the Mayoral race outright, a candidate needed a minimum of 2,945 votes based on tonight’s unofficial totals.  
 
The Myrtle Beach Election Commission meets at 10:00 a.m. Thursday, November 4, in the Second Floor Conference Room at City Hall, 937 Broadway Street, to canvass the votes and certify the election results.  The meeting is open to the public. Unofficially, today’s voter turnout was approximately 21.7 percent.