York County Republicans could reopen filing for sheriff election

YORK COUNTY, S.C. — State lawmakers in South Carolina say they’ve taken a lot of calls about the race for the next York County sheriff.

The calls are coming after we reported last week that Sheriff Kevin Tolson withdrew his name from the race and his wife signed up to run, seemingly uncontested.

Channel 9′s Tina Terry learned that York County Republicans will vote Tuesday to reopen filing for the race.

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Tolson’s wife, Beth, decided to run for his seat on the last day of filing, with no challengers. That prompted some to call lawmakers and complain.

“Some of my constituents had concerns, or sent me information regarding this, the way it transpired, and I was called and asked was there any way the filing could be reopened,” said state Rep. Dennis C. Moss of District 29, which includes York County.

Moss told Terry he contacted the state’s election commission with those concerns.

“It just didn’t have a clean look to it to me. There may be no improprieties at all, but it seemed like it’s not only gotta look right, gotta be right,” Moss said.

The board of elections says in situations like this, a political party can allow other candidates to file. Terry learned that members of the York County Republican Party will meet Tuesday night to decide if it should reopen the filing.

The last-minute change caught the attention of other legislators, who are now supporting the effort to reopen filing. Republican state House representatives Brandon Guffey and Heath Sessions talked about the issue on a podcast Monday night.

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“I think the right thing to do is to reopen it,” they said in Monday’s podcast. “Listen, Kevin and Beth are spouses, obviously Beth knew something no one else did prior to the filing period closing, so you need to allow a level playing field for any other candidate considering.”

The meeting is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday in York County. Once a decision is made, the county party members will notify the York County Elections Commission if they want to reopen filing.

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