MUELLER A crowded field of law enforcement professionals seeking to become the next Cherokee County sheriff was whittled down to two Tuesday.

Rick Burgess and Steve Mueller are now headed for a runoff election on June 22.

Burgess, former captain of the Metro Narcotics Unit in the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, was the top vote-getter in the Republican Primary with 32.6 percent of the vote, while Mueller, former First Sergeant in charge of Post A of the South Carolina Highway Patrol’s Troop 4, came in a close second with 30.9 percent of the vote.

According to unofficial election night returns, Burgess received 2,932 votes, Mueller received 2,777 votes, current Cherokee County Chief Deputy Joel Hill came in third with 1,651 votes, former Gaffney Police Captain Brooks Allison received 1,016 votes and former Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office Captain Jimmy Cash received 611 votes.

BURGESS Despite the potential on this year’s ballot for numerous runoff elections, the Sheriff’s Office race appears to be the only one headed for a runoff. Assuming the election night returns don’t change during the official count on Thursday, Election Commission Executive Director Suzanne Turner said there were only a few paper ballots and provisional ballots to count Thursday — not enough to swing any of the other races towards a runoff.

Burgess, who spent 23 years with the sheriff’s office, previously ran for the sheriff’s post four years ago. After leaving the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, he went to work as an investigator with the 7th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.

“I was pleasantly surprised to come out on top," Burgess said. “To come out on top of a field of candidates like that, I think it says something about the message we’re trying to get across.”

Going forward, Burgess said, “We’ve got to get our message out that experience counts, that I have the experience to run the sheriff’s office.”

Mueller, a 20-year veteran of the South Carolina Highway Patrol, resigned from his post command to seek the office. Post A covers Cherokee and Union counties.

Mueller offered: “We’re very excited. I think very clearly, with five candidates in the race, there are a lot of people who have embraced our platform and the things we ran on for the past 10 weeks.”

Going forward, Mueller said, “Now we’re going to continue working hard to reach those we couldn’t. We’re going to stick with the

Fowler platform that got us here.”

During the campaign, both candidates announced their intent to get more deputies on the road by reorganizing duties within the office, retain qualified people and address deputy pay, take new looks at cold cases and boost efforts at crime fighting and prevention.

No Democrats stepped forward during the primary, so the winner of the June 22 runoff essentially will win the sheriff’s post. Whoever takes command will be the first new sheriff in 20 years as longtime Sheriff Bill Blanton announced his intention not to seek a new term before the election season started — opening the door for numerous candidates to take a shot.