UNION – Two questions were posed on Union County voters’ ballots on Tuesday — one at the state level and the other at the local level.

Amendment

On the state level, voters in Union County decided in favor of an amendment to the state constitution — with a vote of 6,113 (51.95 percent) to 5,655 (48.05 percent) — to allow the governor and lieutenant governor to be elected jointly.

The amendment to Section 8 of Article IV of the Constitution of South Carolina means that beginning with the general election of 2018, candidates for governor and lieutenant governor of South Carolina will run on the same ticket and be elected to office jointly.

This also means the lieutenant governor will no longer preside over the Senate, and Section 37 will be added to Article III, to provide that the Senate will elect a presiding officer from within the Senate body.

Referendum

Voters also decided — with a vote of 7,628 (70.85 percent) to 3,138 (29.15 percent)— to retain Union County’s council-supervisor form of government, rather than changing to a council-administrator form of government.

Under the council-supervisor system, the supervisor is both an elected official and the county administrator, responsible for the day-to-day operation of county government.

This outcome was predicted in an online poll conducted by The Union Daily Times (at www.uniondailytimes.com), as the majority who voted in the online poll. Of the 300 readers who participated in the poll, 56 percent said no, the system of government should not be changed, while 44 percent said yes, it should be.