Jump to content

Voting Today in South Carolina


monsoon

Recommended Posts

What kinds of experiences are you guys having today in going to the polls. If you have not voted yet, then please go vote. The world is watching. All comments are welcome. Thanks.

I don't live in SC anymore, but my Mom and Dad, who are retired, have volunteered to work at one of the preceints in Myrtle Beach. I suspect they are going to be very tired tonight given the lines that I have seen reported in some parts of SC.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


  • Replies 30
  • Created
  • Last Reply

I was in line for 3 hours (7 am to 10 am) at the MLK Park polling place. The A-K line moved twice as slow....people arriving 45 minutes after me that got in the L-Z line, left 30 minutes before me. I really do think that a lot of people chose to go early. It was well worth it however. Go Obama! :yahoo:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Comparing the county maps from 2004 and 2008, I see that three counties flipped from red to blue: Calhoun, Charleston, and Chester. Charleston County is especially significant, as it went for Bush over Kerry by 5 percentage points in 2004, but went for Obama by 21 percentage points. Richland almost doubled its support for the Democratic candidate this year, giving Kerry a 15% advantage in 2004 while giving Obama a 29% advantage this year. Greenville and Spartanburg counties didn't go for McCain as strong as they did for Bush, but the victory for McCain in those counties was still pretty decisive. York County remained red, but the margin that it went for McCain was a little over half of what it was in 2004, which may be reflective of demographic shifts there. Interestingly, Horry County remained relatively unchanged between 2004 and 2008 in terms of the percentage of votes going to each candidate.

In all, with 94% of precincts reporting, McCain went to SC by 9 percentage points, 54% to 45%, while it went for Bush in 2004 by 17 percentage points, 58% to 41%. That's pretty significant, and with more population gains in the near future, SC could very well be on its way to becoming something of a battleground state.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^ I would also recommend NY Time's 'bubble map', thematically identifying the margin of victory per county for Obama & McCain. Also you can review the changes going back to 1992: http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/map.html

My impression too is that typical democrat areas voted more in force & typical republican areas were slightly more competitive. I'm still debating if SC could potentially become a purple state, as NC & VA are definitely purple states in the direction of blue, besides Obama's win but including democrat gains in senate & house. Considering southern republicans are more social conservative than fiscal conservative, I wonder if Palin was enough for McCain to win over southern republicans? Or if he did, was that offset by a more passionate Black & young vote. I would think those two factors is a big reason why Charleston County flipped like it did - college students & Blacks who may not have voted in such high numbers in the past (or for that matter Richland County's more impressive turnout for Obama).

But besides Horry County, it looks like Lexington County & all the Upstate counties were largely unchanged. They are all still 60+ % in favor of the republicans. I think that may be the biggest obstacle to SC becoming purple. Democrats can still only count on mid & low state Blacks & Columbia & Charleston in trying to win SC. Without the Upstate, it would be impossible for SC to turn blue.

One other observation - a surprise, McCain won a smaller percentage in Beaufort County than George Bush! Even being a war hero didn't help McCain win the large numbers of military & veterans there (unless of course that is another sign of Blacks making the difference).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just curious - where are you getting that from? NY Times has SC with a 8.9 point difference & GA with a 5.5 point difference. CNN (who rounded off) has SC with a 9 point difference & GA with a 5 point difference.

Nonetheless - glad to hear the youth vote went with Obama, that is a good sign.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My mistake. I should have looked at the latest results with 99% of GA's precincts reporting. They are 52-47 for McCain to our 54-45 for McCain. But we were significantly closer than MS, AL and TX. I heard on ETV radio at 5:00 that stats show well educated South Carolinians supported Obama by a wide margin.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^ Oh definitely - it looks very clear where the republican base geographically is now & SC isn't in it (excluding Upstate). Based on McCain margin of victory per county, it is clearly in TN, KY, AR, OK, north Texas & Appalachia region(AL, GA, SC) as well as the Gulf Coast from Florida panhandle to Houston & of course Utah.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My mom who volunteered to be an election worker at one of the polling locations in Myrtle Beach said it was an exhausting but very fun and rewarding experience. She said she personally checked in over 600 voters and was there about 14.5 hours. Because she was a poll worker they let her and my dad vote early since she was not working at her assigned precient. However in SC anyone over 65 can also vote without having to give an excuse so they would have qualified for that too. They do this as the state would like to give the elderly the option of not having to stand in long lines in early Nov weather.

Part of the experience was the requirement to attend a mandatory training class. The class covered the mechanics of how the voting process was supposed to work and less obvious things that involved a person's constitutional rights to vote. SC wants all their poll workers to understand this so they will be able to address issues that might come up and to present a face to the community that the election process is a good and sound one.

I was excited for them and the election process in SC.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Representative Clyburn is working a bill that would require early voting in all states for federal elections. I'm indifferent about early voting. I don't see how absentee voting is any different than this process. In general it seems like a waste of money. People still waited hours to vote early here in NC. This could impact SC in the future if it passes.

Article

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Representative Clyburn is working a bill that would require early voting in all states for federal elections. I'm indifferent about early voting. I don't see how absentee voting is any different than this process. In general it seems like a waste of money. People still waited hours to vote early here in NC. This could impact SC in the future if it passes.

Article

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here in Charlotte there were multiple locations... usually at libraries.

The problem I have with it is that you have to staff these locations. Who pays for that staff? Where does that staff come from? If the federal government is going to give us some money to do it then thats great, but if not I think it would be better just to make absentee voting easier.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minus 16 equals negative 5. I don't understand. Richland County retains the highest percentage of college graduates in the state according to stats I saw the other day, and data show SC voters with high levels of education went for Obama. So whether it's a lower level of education or some other factor that makes Greenville and Spartanburg counties vote GOP, if they had voted DEM Obama would have won SC.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minus 16 equals negative 5. I don't understand. Richland County retains the highest percentage of college graduates in the state according to stats I saw the other day, and data show SC voters with high levels of education went for Obama. So whether it's a lower level of education or some other factor that makes Greenville and Spartanburg counties vote GOP, if they had voted DEM Obama would have won SC.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.