Hand Middle's Pamela Adams Wins Richland One's At-Large Seat

Pamela Adams, a social studies teacher at Hand Middle School, has been elected to serve on Richland School District One's board. 

Adams received 2,232 votes out of 3,927 ballots cast, or 57 percent. 

Adams, in an interview with The State, reiterated on Tuesday night her pledge to resign from her teaching post to fill the school board seat, saying it didn't make sense to hold both positions.

Adams beat four other candidates who were vying for the at-large seat that became vacant after the death of longtime board member Barbara A. Scott. 

She will serve the remainder of Scott’s four-year term through 2016. 

Other candidates and results were:

• Karen W. Wilson, 842 votes
• Deborah Belton, 509 votes
• Doretha A. Bull, 253 votes
• Reginald Sims, 52 votes

Adams has taught geography, South Carolina History, and World History to students in grades 7 and 8 at Hand Middle for the past 11 years.

Turnout was very low for Tuesday's election. Almost 4,000 of about 129,000 registered voters cast their ballots.

This is the second election the Richland County elections office conducted since the botched Nov. 6 election where voters had to wait in long lines for hours due to broken or an insufficient number of voting machines.

The first election this year was held for the Forest Acres City Council.

Interim director Jasper Salmond said he was very pleased with the overall election process Tuesday.

"The likelihood of oversights just wasn't there," Salmond said. "There were no major challenges."