Brown, Aldridge headed for runoff in race to be new tax commissioner 

Four candidates began Tuesday hoping to be the next Laurens County tax commissioner. When the results came out, the question of who will succeed  the retiring Lee Dixon in the office was still up in the air.

Darla Brown received the most votes with 2,408 for 35.98 percent. Tim Aldridge was second with 1,819, followed by Sharon Arata (1,641) and Raj Saxena (825). Because Brown did not get more than 50 percent of the vote, she will face Aldridge in a runoff that is scheduled for June 18. 

According to information from the Laurens County Board of Registrars, advance voting for the runoff will be held as soon as possible.

“It’s good and bad, but it’s OK. I’ll get back to work,” Brown said after receiving the results Tuesday night. “I appreciate the voters who voted for me this go-around. Hopefully, I can earn the respect for the voters who voted for me and other voters to come out vote for me in the runoff. It will start again really soon.” 

Aldridge anticipated a runoff.

“We’re ecstatic and excited,” he said. “It goes to show that Laurens County definitely wants some change. I want to serve all of Laurens County. I want to go in there and be a representative for everybody. We need good, honest and fair representation, and I can’t have a voice in what’s going on in the community if I’m sitting on the sideline. I encourage everybody to get out and vote.” 

Aldridge was up at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday. He had already been in three meetings before 9 a.m. and was out looking at his campaign signs. He plans to go back to work on getting people to vote for him next month.

“I am real appreciative of all the support (Tuesday),” Aldridge said. 

“All I can say is that I would really appreciate all of that support and more again. We’ve got to get out there, work hard and get a few more votes.” 

Brown plans to work just as hard. 

“I just need to get the voters to come back out again,” she said. “We’ve got to push our people to come back to the polls.” 

In local election stats, of the county’s 35,511 registered voters, 9,035 (25.44 percent) cast ballots. Of those 9,035, 5,949 voted Tuesday, 2,753 used advance voting and 333 were absentee by mail.