One of the more confusing aspects of the 2012 primary season in Horry County has come to an end, with a winner declared in the race to fill the vacated state House District 68 seat for the next five months.

With all 20 precincts of the Socastee area district reporting, Republican Heather Ammons Crawford had 202 votes while a write-in-candidate had four, based on unofficial results.

District 68 has approximately 26,890 registered voters, meaning less than 1 percent turned out for Tuesday’s special election.

Crawford was the sole candidate in the battle to fill former representative Thad Vier’s District 68 seat, following his resignation in March after being charged with harrassing an ex-girlfriend.

But since the Legislator is out of session, all Crawford will do for the next few months is draw a paycheck. She previously beat fellow GOP hopefuls Larry Richardson and Thomas Muse in the June 5 special primary before moving on to Tuesday’s vote, where she faced no Democratic opposition.

There is the general election in November for a full two-year term as the District 68 representative. In the June 12 state primary, Crawford again beat Richardson. And again, she will have no Democratic opponent in the fall.

Tuesday’s special election cost around $20,000, Sandy Martin, director of Horry County Voter Registration, previously said.

Rep. Alan Clemmons, for whom Crawford works, tried to head off the special election because of Horry County and a similar situation in the Charleston area, where former Sen. Glen McConnell resigned to take Lt. Gov. Ken Ard’s job after Ard resigned. But his bill didn’t make it through the House in time.

Crawford, who appears to be the district’s new representative, has said some of her top priorities are economic development and having an educated workforce to support development, as well as simplifying the tax code

Contact BRAD DICKERSON at 626-0301.