1964 South Carolina Senate election

In the first round of the Democratic primary for Fairfield County's state senate seat, incumbent senator Ben F. Hornsby appeared to defeat former senator John Martin by six votes in unofficial tallies. After a mandatory recount, Hornsby's lead grew to eleven votes for a final vote count of 2,082–2,071, and the county Democratic executive committee certified Hornsby's nomination. Martin did not concede, and chose to appeal the decision to the state Democratic executive committee.^[12] The SDEC met in Columbia in June 30 to settle the dispute.

Twenty-five ballots were in question. In the original recount, the county had thrown out twenty-three for being improperly marked. Upon further examination of the ballots, the SDEC determined that seventeen belonged to Martin, four to Hornsby, with the remaining four being unintelligible. This was enough to reverse the election in Martin's favor, and the SDEC ruled Martin the victor, 2,088 votes to 2,084, a four-vote margin. Upon learning of his defeat, Senator Hornsby left the meeting and checked out of his hotel.^[13]

Hornsby declined to fight the ruling in the courts. Under South Carolina law, candidates who lost a primary could not contest or campaign in the general election. A write-in campaign led by Columbia attorney Malcolm E. Rentz was organized without consulting Hornsby in an attempt to re-elect him.^[14] A large number of local voters backed the effort, but it was ultimately unsuccessful, as Democratic nominee Martin was elected over Hornsby at the general election by 680 votes, 2,603 to 1,923.^[5]