Candidates are scurrying around again filing to run for local offices, a sure sign that another election season is about to poke us in the face with rhetoric, organizing, television ads, direct mail, red, white and blue.

Fourteen Charleston County municipalities have general elections on the first Tuesday of November. In some places around the state, like North Charleston, the candidate who gets the most votes wins, meaning someone in a four-way race could win with just 30% of the vote. But in other towns and cities like Charleston, candidates have to get 50% plus one vote to win. And if no candidate gets above the required threshold? A runoff, two weeks later.

These runoffs can be expensive, what with more poll workers and a second election process. Tired candidates and campaign staff h

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