Petition launched to move election date back to November in Mullins
FLORENCE, S.C. -- The Marion County Chapter of the National Action Network launched a petition to move the City of Mullins' election date back to November from April after the council voted to change the date in April.
National Action Network Marion County Chapter canvassing in Mullins for a petition about the city's election date change.
The "Let Mullins Vote" campaign, as of Wednesday afternoon, said it had "over 200" signatures.
“I didn't have a single person who was like ‘’Well, why do I care about that?,’” said Edla Vaughn, president of the Marion County NAN Chapter. ‘Because people understand that you vote in November. That's just a common practice, and it's been like that here for decades.”
In Marion County's primaries, residents overwhelmingly supported the incumbent candidates for County Council districts 3 and 5.
The National Action Network established its Marion Chapter in March 2026 after Mayor Miko Pickett’s duties were restricted because of her opposition to the council working to change elections, Vaughn said. The NAN contacted Vaughn asking how it could help.
“We were trying to do little things to organize, but ultimately we needed some kind of actual entity to organize around, a structured organization to allow us to, you know, kind of resist some things going on. ... I mean it was a grassroots thing, and then the National Action Network came down,” NAN Marion Chapter Vice President Darius Pickett said.
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The town had been holding its elections in November using the runoff method.
The election change came after the interim city attorney found the city had not been following its written ordinances regarding the method and date of voting set in 2004.
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The council ended up voting to change the election date in Mullins to the April date reflected in the ordinance but voted to change the method from plurality to runoff.
"So the average person, when being approached with the question, ‘Are you OK with changing the date to April?’ the first question is ‘Why?’” Vaughn said. “Nobody can understand a single reason why you want to, especially when the statistics tell you got about a 40% turnout in November and a 12.5% turnout in April.”
The Florence Morning News reached out to city leadership as well as every member of the city council for comment and an interview. Requests were not responded to by the time of publication.
The group is planning to take the petition to the city in the next few weeks.
Vaughn and Pickett said they hope the city will change the election back to November but have next steps planned if it is not successful.
“If we are unsuccessful for whatever reason in this petition, April will be all hands on deck so to speak, putting in representation that it is representative,” Pickett said.
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