Early voting for Town of Hilton Head mayoral runoff race starts this week. What to know

Hilton Head Island voters can get in early starting Wednesday to cast their ballots in the runoff for mayor between candidates Alan Perry and JoAnn Orischak, Town of Hilton Head officials announced Monday.

Only two precincts, one at the Beaufort County Government Center on Hilton Head at 539 William Hilton Parkway and the other at the Board of Voter Registration and Elections of Beaufort County at 15 John Galt Road in Beaufort, will be open daily for early voting starting Wednesday until Friday. The two locations will open at 8:30 a.m. and close at 5 p.m.

All Hilton Head precincts will be open for the Nov. 22 runoff from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m., and all town residents who were registered to vote at least 30 days before the Nov. 8 election will be eligible to vote in the runoff.

Those who requested an absentee ballot for the Nov. 8 general election and checked off that they also wanted o receive one in the case of a runoff will automatically be sent a ballot, town officials said in the news release. Only the voters who requested absentee ballots during the general election will receive them for the runoff. To count, absentee ballots must be received by the election office by 7 p.m. on Nov. 22. Those ballots are set to be mailed out later this week.

Neither Perry nor Orichak managed to secure 50% of the votes on the Nov. 8 election, sending the candidates into a runoff slated for Nov. 22. Last week’s election results saw Perry with 41.39%, or 6,523 votes, while Orischak had 44.18%, or 6,963 votes, according to Beaufort County’s official election day results.

Despite withdrawing from the race over a month ago, former candidate Thomas Cleary had 1,338 ballots cast for him.

“I voted for JoAnn and I support JoAnn,” Cleary previously told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette. “I think that she certainly most closely resembles my views on everything ... as it stands now, I’d like to see those votes provided to JoAnn.”

Another candidate, Micahel Santomauro, received 863 votes. Santomauro also ran for Hilton Head mayor in 2018.

Election day results were certified in a hearing Saturday morning by the Board of Voter Registration and Elections of Beaufort County’s Board of Canvassers.

Voters will have another chance to hear Perry and Orischak speak at the Plantation House of Hilton Head Plantation from 6-7 p.m. Monday. The event is being put on by the League of Women Voters and will give voters the chance to ask questions of the candidates and hear more about their intended policies.

The forum is open to the public, but voters wishing to attend will need to email League of Women Voters President Kay Roshnow at president.lwvhhiba@gmail.com for a pass to get into the gated community.