Hilton Head mayoral candidates get another shot to convince voters prior to runoff election
Before Hilton Head’s second-consecutive mayoral runoff election Nov. 22, the island’s top two candidates will have another chance to make their cases to voters.
Candidates JoAnn Orischak and Alan Perry will be featured in a mayoral forum from 6-7 p.m. Monday at the Plantation House of Hilton Head Plantation. Hosted by the local chapter of the League of Women Voters, the forum will allow both candidates to expand on their policies and answer questions from voters.
The forum is open to the general public, but attendees who are not residents of Hilton Head Plantation will need to email Kay Roshnow, the president of the League of Women Voters’ Hilton Head and Bluffton chapter, at president.lwvhhiba@gmail.com to request a guest pass. The event will not be livestreamed, Roshnow said.
Orischak and Perry are headed to a runoff after neither secured 50% of the vote in the Nov. 8 general election. Perry received 6,500 total votes, or 41.34% of all votes cast, while Orischak held a slim lead with 6,957 or 44.24%, according to unofficial results from scvotes.gov and the Beaufort County Board of Elections.
Despite withdrawing from the race in early October, former candidate Thomas J. Cleary III’s name still appeared on the ballot and received 1,334 votes, or 8.48% of the vote cast.
Capturing the support of Cleary’s voters could be crucial for success in the runoff election, observers have said.
“I voted for JoAnn and I support JoAnn,” Cleary said Wednesday after the election. “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.”
The third candidate in the race, Michael Santomauro, received 859 votes. He also ran for mayor in 2018, when he drew just 2% of the vote.
The event’s venue in the heart of Hilton Head Plantation is a fitting one — voters and candidates alike have identified the gated community as a crucial voting bloc on the island. Considering its importance, a portion of questions for the candidates at Monday’s forum will revolve around Hilton Head Plantation and its voters, Roshnow said.
“Hilton Head Plantation is one of the largest (voting areas),” Perry previously told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette. “Taking a look at HHP, how the votes varied there, and understanding that we’ve had a lot of new residents move into the area over the past couple of years, and that they may not have as much knowledge as some of the other voters.”
Hilton Head Plantation is home to roughly 10,000 islanders, according to the property owner’s association website.
Details on the Nov. 22 runoff election, including whether there will be early voting, will not be available until Monday after all election final results are made available, officials say. Marie Smalls, director of the Board of Voter Registration and Elections of Beaufort County, previously told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette that the Board of Canvassers would confirm all final results Friday.
Smalls could not immediately be reached for comment.
This story was originally published November 11, 2022 at 1:27 PM.
