Moore earns Easley seat

COUNTY — Pickens County voters went to the polls in Liberty and Easley on Tuesday to elect a new Pickens County School Board member and a new Easley City Councilman. The turnout was light as expected, with only 7.8 percent of the 13,152 registered voters in local precincts casting ballots.

In Liberty, voters picked Tri-County Technical College Easley campus director Brian Swords to fill the seat left vacant when former School Board chairman Ben Trotter resigned earlier this year. Swords won the four-person race with 479 votes, a wide margin over second-place finisher Roy Costner’s 185 votes. Former school district building program director Bob Folkman managed 113 votes, while longtime school district employee Bonita Thomas Holland picked up 82 votes.

In addition to the school board race to fill Trotter’s seat, voters in Easley went to the polls to elect Terry Moore to fill the vacant Ward 4 city council seat. Moore garnered 90 votes to Chad Roach’s 73 votes. Moore will replace Kim Valentin on Easley City Council. Valentin resigned in December.

The unofficial tally includes all precincts, but not provisional and fail safe ballots. The results will be certified on Thursday.