COUNTY — After the votes were tallied Tuesday night for the day’s Republican primary run-off, Pickens County Republican voters selected Nikki Haley with 6,705 votes in the governor’s race. Gresham Barrett finished with 6,062 votes.
In the lietenant governor race, county voters chose Ken Ard 8,512 to Bill Connor 3,803.
Pickens County voters selected Alan Wilson with 7,242 over Leighton Lord who managed 5,137.
Mick Zais was the county’s choice for state superintendent of education with 7,753 votes beating Elizabeth Moffly who picked up 4,351.
In the U.S. House of Representatives race, Richard Cash (6,959) earned Pickens County’s vote, edging Jeff Duncan (5,671).
According to county election officials, 21.37 percent of Pickens County’s 60,078 registered voters cast ballots in Tuesday’s primaries run-off.
Results of all elections are unofficial until being certified Thursday morning at 9 a.m.

CLEMSON — Graduation ceremonies for SDPC high schools will take place at Littlejohn Coliseum on Saturday, June 12,as Clemson hosts Alabama in the NCAA Super Regional games in Doug Kingsmore Stadium.
High school graduation ceremonies will begin as follows: Liberty High School at 10:00 a.m.; Daniel HighSchool at 1:00 p.m.; Pickens High School at 4:00 p.m.; and Easley High School at 7:00 p.m.
The Tigers and Crimson Tide will compete on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. and Sunday at 7:00 p.m. with a possible game on Monday.
The Clemson Athletic Department encourages those who attend graduation ceremonies to park in lots 5, 6, 7, or 8. Fans attending the baseball game are encouraged to park in lots 3A, 13, 4, 5, or 6.
In addition to these events, four sports camps are taking place in the area of the Clemson athletic complex.
The public is encouraged to drive with special care.

COUNTY — The people of Pickens County’s District 2 will have to wait until later this week to know who will represent them on county council this fall.
After the votes were tallied Tuesday night for the day’s Republican primary, Trey Whitehurst led incumbent councilman Randy Crenshaw by only three votes, 1,145-1,142. With emergency failsafe and provisional votes, which cannot be tallied until Thursday, the race is still up in the air.
When Crenshaw won his seat on council in the 2007 primary, he edged out Roy Collins by only six votes, according to county election officials.
All other primary results will be combined with state and district-wide results, which were unavailable at press time.
Pickens County Republican voters selected Nikki Haley with 6,071 votes in the governor’s race. Gresham Barrett finished second in the voting with 5,588 votes, with Henry McMaster in third (1,965) and Andre Bauer fourth (1,667).
In the lietenant governor race, county voters chose Ken Ard with 6,205 votes. Bill Connor (3,702), Larry Richter (2,765) and Eleanor Kitzman (1,929) rounded out the voting.
Curtis Loftis (8,565) edged Converse Chellis (5,821) as the county’s choice for state treasurer.
Pickens County voters selected Leighton Lord (5,980) for state attorney general. Lord finished ahead of Alan Wilson (5,716) and Robert Bolchoz (2,712).
Incumbent Richard Eckstrom (9,263) won handily over Mike Meilinger (4,589) in the comptroller general’s race.
Mick Zais was the county’s choice for state superintendent of education with 4,089 votes, beating out Brent Nelsen (2,816), Gary Burgess (2,320), Kelly Payne (2,021), Elizabeth Moffly (1,946) and Glenn Price (862).
Jim DeMint took Pickens County in the U.S. Senate race with 12,464 votes, beating out Susan McDonald Gaddy (2,571).
In the U.S. House of Representatives race, Richard Cash (4,107) earned Pickens County’s vote, narrowly edging Rex Rice (4,048). Neal Collins (2,462), Jeff Duncan (2,191), Joe Grimaud (1,862) and Frank Michael Vasovski (269) rounded out the voting.
In a close race, Eric Bikas (1,214) beat out Christopher Robin Henry Wilson (1,127) to take Pickens County in the State House of Representatives District 26 race.
The Republican primary ballot also asked two advisory questions of voters. One question asked if the legislature should make it illegal to force South Carolina residents to buy health insurance or participate in any health care plan against their will. The second asked if the legislature should pass bills that limit spending growth by linking it to average income increases or gains in population and inflation.
Pickens County residents overwhelmingly voted yes on both questions. 13,045 county residents answered yes on the first question, while only 1,937 voted no. On question two, 13,962 yes votes were cast, as opposed to only 1,114 no votes.
In the Democratic primary, Pickens County voters chose Vincent Sheheen with 1,060 votes. Jim Rex (487) and Robert Ford (188) rounded out the voting.
For state superintendent of education, Frank Holleman took Pickens County with 973 votes, beating out Tom Thompson’s 643.
Alvin Greene (877) edged Vic Rawl (665) in the U.S. Senate race.
Jane Ballard Dyer garnered nearly 80 percent of the Pickens County vote in the U.S. House of Representatives District 3 race with 1,324 votes, compared to Brian Ryan Doyle’s 343.
According to county election officials, 28.47 percent of Pickens County’s 60,078 registered voters cast ballots in Tuesday’s primaries.
Results of all elections are unofficial until being certified Thursday morning at 9 a.m.

COUNTY — Meth labs continue to be found and eradicated in the county at a rate of one approximately eAvery two weeks, according to the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office.
Only three months into this calendar year, authorities have already dismantled seven meth labs countywide, according to Lieutenant Chad Brooks of the sheriff’s office’s Special Operations Division.
“In terms of damage to children, property, and to our society in general, methamphetamine is by far the most dangerous drug in Pickens County,” Brooks said.
In addition to the March 11 arrest of James Wade Moyer of Easley, charged with manufacturing methamphetamines, some of the most recent arrests stemmed from a late-February bust at a home on Love and Care Road in Six Mile.
According to deputies, officers went to the home at 911 Love and Care Rd. on February 25 to serve a criminal warrant on Aaron Robert King, 24. When they arrived at the residence, they heard movement inside the home. Deputies said after knocking on the door several times, a female opened the door.
According to deputies, the female said King was in the back bedroom of the home. Officers entered the home and asked King to come into the living room, where they placed him in handcuffs.
Deputies spotted a bottle of a crystal-like substance, syringes and a bag of a green, leafy substance in plain sight on the kitchen table.
According to an incident report, deputies then searched the home and found more suspicious items, and while checking the home heard a noise under the bed in the back bedroom.
There, they found a third person hiding under the bed.
Deputies then called the Special Operations unit to the scene for clean-up.
Arrested at the home were Crystal Caroline Page, 31, and King, who both lived at the residence, and Gregory Allen Patterson, 49, of 295 Gin Shoals Rd. in Six Mile.
Page was charged with manufacturing and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, as well as disposal or assisting in the disposal of methamphetamine, first offense, possession of marijuana and two counts of possession of a controlled substance.
Patterson was charged with manufacturing and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, disposal or assisting in the disposal of methamphetamine, two counts of possession of a controlled substance and possession of marijuana, first offense.
King was charged with manufacturing and distribution of methamphetamine and disposal or assisting in the disposal of methamphetamine, possession of a controlled substance and possession of marijuana, all second or subsequent offense.
Office believe they found evidence that the defendants had attempted to burn the waste from a clandestine methamphetamine lab inside a metal barrel and in a pile in the yard of the residence.
All three were arrested and released on bond.

By Bill West
Special to the Courier
chroniclebill@yahoo.com

Editor’s Note: Bill West is Senior Editor of the Lexington County Chronicle and The Dispatch-News. The South Carolina Press Association named West Weekly Journalist of the Year on Saturday.

LEXINGTON — Former Lt. Governor and Comptroller General Earle Morris, Jr., is a free man.
A close friend who visited with Morris at a local medical facility said he is free from prison, but he is imprisoned in a frail body. Morris was released earlier this month after 25 months of a 44-month sentence because he is terminally ill.
Morris has lost 50 pounds during his incarceration. A family member said the weight loss was due to the lack of proper food and not his medical condition.
The Lexington resident has undergone treatment for prostate cancer and is, as his friend described, “A former shell of himself, but his spirits are still excellent.”
The Chronicle visited with Morris and understood his friend’s remarks.
“I firmly believe that God puts us where He wants us to be. And this is where I am. There is a reason for that,” Morris said.
Speaking in the day room at the medical facility, Morris said, as he has since the case involving HomeGold of Lexington and Carolina Investors of Pickens first became known in 2003, “I am not and I was not guilty.”
“I am not bitter, even though this has taken all my family savings, my good name and time away from my loving wife, my family, and service to the people of the Palmetto State,” he said.
He had been found guilty of securities fraud for misleading investors who put their money in the small-town Carolina Investors firm where he served as titular head.
“The only thing I was guilty of was believing what I was told by corporate executives and bookkeepers,” Morris said. “I lost money just like the investors did.”
More than 12,000 people lost almost $300 million when Carolina Investors closed its doors n March of 2003. Executives of HomeGold, the parent company of Carolina Investors, raided the subsidiary’s assets to keep their insolvent company afloat.