After 10 terms as mayor of Charleston, Mayor Joe Riley will retire following 40 years of service. Riley will hand over the reigns to a new mayor in upcoming months, however, while there was a mayoral election on November 3rd, Charleston has yet to decide on Riley’s successor. The previous election between candidates: Ginny Deerin, William Dudley Gregorie, Toby Smith, Leon Stavrinakis, John Tecklenburg and Maurice Washington,  resulted in a runoff between Stavrinakis and Tecklenburg. The new election date to decide between Tecklenburg and Stavrinakis is November 17th.

While Tecklenburg is a former Director of Economic Development for the City of Charleston, Stavrinakis is a life long politician, serving in the South Carolina House of Representatives. Both candidates want to complete the construction of I-526 that is meant to connect West Ashley, James Island, Johns Island, Mount Pleasant and the Peninsula. Tecklenburg’s website also has an emphasis on public transportation, both improving existing bus systems and creating new options for public transportation such as a potential ferry boat system between islands.

Both candidates also want to focus on public safety, while Stavrinakis boasts a history of work improving public safety, including writing and passing the Boland Act, a bill that keeps guns out of the hands of dangerous mental health patients, Tecklenburg’s website details: the creation of a public advisory board to improve police and community relations, increased accountability for criminal domestic violence and assistance for domestic violence victims, reviews of the new body camera policy, and reviews of City Compensation plans to “verify that our police, firefighters and other first responders are being paid properly for their efforts.”

In the election today voters are not required to have voted in the November 3rd election in order to cast their ballot, and the polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. In the previous election, unofficial results showed Tecklenburg winning 37 percent of the votes and Stavrinakis winning 36 percent. The results of today’s runoff will be reported sometime tomorrow morning and will decide who will be Charleston’s new mayor for the next four years.