An Independent's View: South Carolina Democratic Primary

COLUMBIA, South Carolina, January 26 - Unlike last week's cold, wet day for the Republican Primary race, today was cool but sunny. And the Democratic faithful were out in full force. As an Independent voter, I was determined to get the full picture of South Carolina's electoral process. So, once more, I returned to the polling place, where just a week before, I had participated in the Republican Primary. Today it was the Democrats turn.

While standing there waiting to speak with Richard M., polling manager for one of the polling places in Columbia, I saw a steady stream of voters coming in to cast their ballot for the next Democratic nominee for the White House race this fall.

Still missing were the familiar poll watchers and campaign personnel trying one last ditch effort to sway the voter's decision. Even on a nice day, these faces usually lurking outside the polling place, handing out buttons and stickers and mock ballots with their candidates boldly emblazoned or brightly highlighted. So where are they?

"Probably in Florida," Richard commented. "It seems like they just wrote off the results here in South Carolina as a done deal. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if the outcome shocked them."

Like the Republican Primary just a week before, this week's campaigning was rife with controversy. However, it was the candidates themselves who were the center of the discord, leaving South Carolina's much maligned reputation untouched. Bill said this, Hillary said that and Obama responded with this. The media has played the race issue to the limit, not without much help from several of the wannabe Presidential hopefuls themselves, and sounding all innocent about it. Until now, the debates and campaigning have been mostly congenial. But like many elections in the past, the Democrats begin sniping.

And to add to the dissension, there was a power outage in the area of this particular polling place. Much misinformation abounded in the general public, with people coming in afraid they wouldn't be able to vote. One woman I observed informed the poll workers that her neighbor said there was only fifteen minutes left to vote (this was at about 4pm) because of the power problems an hour or so before. When assured the polls stayed open until 7pm and that the power outage had not been a big issue, the voter was re-assured.

"At one point," one of the poll workers reported. "A man in line came up and asked how many people were turned away." After being told that no voters were turned away, he insisted that some had to have been since the power had gone out. The worker informed him that they had battery backup and were conserving power by only using one of the three machines at a time. The man insisted that 'battery backups don't work.'

"I asked who he was and he said he was 'with the Obama campaign' and demanded to know how many people didn't get to vote." The election commission poll worker was getting upset at this point and told the man he needed to stop talking to her. He ran out and the voters waiting in line applauded. This man later turned up with another individual but caused no more problems.

"I just don't understand why he couldn't understand the concept that we don't turn anyone away," she said.

More than one person was reported as having come in and announced the power outage was a Republican conspiracy. "It was a Republican that hit a power pole," one woman exclaimed. When contacted for information on the actual cause of the outage, Jodi Roberts-Smythe, a representative from SCANA (SCE&G), informed me that "a car hit a utility pole . . . and it affected about 385 customers from about 11am to 3pm."

"We have about an hour and a half battery backup for each machine," Richard told me. "So we just turned two off and left one on. When that power dropped down, we shut it off and put the next one on line. Luckily the power was only down a short time, so there was only a slight slow down in the voting during that time. We are ready for emergencies."

Despite the occasional disgruntled voter, be it from the nasty campaign tactics or the power outage issue, the voting here for the South Carolina Democratic Primary has gone pretty smoothly. And once more, the workers at the polls are the real story. Not only do they deal with every issue smoothly and with great patience, they do so because they believe in the democratic process. Candidates may come and go, politics may swing left or right, but these poll workers stay steadfast in their duty to help every voter perform their rights under the constitution to actively participate in the governing process.

The polls going into the Primary had Obama at 43%, Clinton at 28%, and Edwards at 17%. Dennis Kucinich bowed out of the race prior to the Primary.

Not too surprising, Barack Obama won the Primary with 55%, capturing 25 delegates to the Republican Convention. Hillary Clinton showed a distant second with 27% and getting 11 delegates. The small surprise was native son John Edwards getting little support and receiving only 18% of the vote, garnering 5 delegates. Dennis Kucinich had about 550 votes and captured no delegates from this Primary.

The next BIG contest for these candidates will be February 5^th, Super Tuesday. Between now and then, we will see how, and if, South Carolina makes an impact on the race for the Presidential nominations.