COLUMBIA (WACH) -- District II residents will have to wait two more weeks before they have representation on Columbia’s City Council.
In Tuesday’s District II election, candidates Brian Dequincey Newman and Harold “Puff” Howard picked up the most votes and will face off in a July 27th runoff."I’m feeling great, I’m excited I’m glad that we've moved forward and now we are headed to the next phase," said Newman.
"It would have been great if we had just won it right out but we knew we would be in a run off so we're ready, we're ready to go," said Howard.
Meanwhile political experts said the biggest challenge ahead for the two candidates will be getting voters back to the polls.
According to Tuesday's election results, less than 10 percent of registered District II voters actually cast their ballots.
"You've had a lot of elections in a relatively short period of time and getting the people to one more time take the time out of their schedule to go and vote is going to be a challenge for these two candidates,” said USC Political Science Professor Dennis Lambris.
Lambris said voter fatigue is the best explanation for Tuesday's low turnout, also pointing out the normal trend for a run-ff is for even fewer people to vote.
On Wednesday both candidates told WACH FOX News that they aren’t worried about low voter turnout.
"I think everybody’s going to get excited that we are down to two people now, not eight candidates, even though we had eight great candidates, I think we will be ok, I truly think so," said Howard.
"We're not concerned about voter turnout, this is a very important position for my neighborhood and for our community and we're concerned about getting some things done," said Newman.
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