Will Montgomery, Sheriff-elect
Montgomery Locks up Sheriff’s Race
WINNSBORO – After a primary, a runoff and in the midst of an ongoing SLED investigation, voters in Fairfield County made it official Tuesday with the special election of Will Montgomery as Sheriff.
Montgomery, who sealed the deal with 1,970 votes Tuesday, will fill out the remaining two years on the term of Herman Young, who stepped down in July because of health reasons.
Montgomery comes from a long line of Fairfield County lawmen. His father, Bubba Montgomery, and his grandfather, S. Leroy Montgomery, both served as Fairfield County Sheriff for 12 years each. Montgomery is a shift supervisor with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, where he has worked for the last 13 years.
Montgomery defeated Chief Deputy Keith Lewis in a special Democratic primary runoff on Oct. 14 with 56.25 percent of the vote. As the only name on Tuesday’s ballot, Montgomery got much more than that in the special election, with 125 write-in ballots cast.
Just days after the runoff, the S.C. Law Enforcement Division (SLED) confirmed reports that their agency had launched a preliminary investigation into allegations of vote-buying leading up to the runoff. SLED would not reveal details of the investigation, specifically who was allegedly paying who to vote for which candidate, but independent sources have since told The Voice that as much as $5,000 in cash was allegedly paid for votes.
Tuesday afternoon, a SLED spokesperson confirmed that the investigation was still open and ongoing.
Phone calls to Montgomery were not returned at press time.
