xzins, you posted the district-wide results for the first round, but the run-off results you posted are only for the Charleston County portion of the district, which portion Sanford indeed won with over 60% but with “only” 11,387 votes in favor:
http://www.enr-scvotes.org/SC/Charleston/46117/116028/en/summary.html
In the entire SC-01 (which also includes precincts in four other counties), Sanford won the run-off with 56.6%, with over 26,000 votes cast in his favor. http://www.enr-scvotes.org/SC/46107/116029/en/summary.html
So while there was a drop-off in the total turnout from the first round to the run-off—as is typical of run-offs, particularly when 14 candidates were eliminated after the first round—it wasn’t anywhere close to what you believed.
As for the fact that 16 candidates ran in the first round, that was only because 15 candidates believed they could finish in the top-two and have a chance of beating Sanford in the run-off. Believe me, they weren’t Sanford patsies; and even had they been Sanford patsies, Sanford faced only one candidate in the run-off, and beat him one-on-one with 56.6%.
Hi Au,
This is the link I used: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Carolina%27s_1st_congressional_district_special_election,_2013#Primary
If it is inaccurate, I was not trying to be so. As you can tell from the page, there’s no indication that there is a difference.
Thanks,
Xzins