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March 4, 2008

Clinton, McCain take R.I. in record-shattering primary

In a record-breaking contest, Hillary Clinton easily beat back Barack Obama today to win Rhode Island's fiercely fought Democratic presidential primary, while a win here by Republican John McCain helped him clinch his party's nomination.

Clinton's triumph also signaled that Obama's national momentum and get-out-the-vote youth brigade here could not trump the power of the Clintons, who have been frequent visitors to the Ocean State.

With 87 percent of the precincts reporting at 11 p.m., Clinton led Obama by 90,358, or about 60 percent, votes to 61,583, or 40 percent, according to unofficial state Board of Elections results. That's 87 percent -- or 156 out of the 179 precincts -- tallied.

In the Republican primary, where turnout was much smaller, Arizona Sen. John McCain still decimated Mike Huckabee, 15,223 to 5,064, also with 87 percent of precincts reporting, according to unofficial Board of Elections results.

While some results from the state's 179 polling places were straggling in, it was clear that the votes cast today have broken the state record for turnout in a primary of any kind -- not just presidential.

It eclipsed not only the previous record holder for presidential primaries in 2000, but the highest overall: the 167,000 or so voters who turned out in 1990 in the gubernatorial battle among Bruce Sundlun, Francis Flaherty and Joseph Paolino.

About 5,000 mail-in votes also remain to be added to the totals as of about 11:30 p.m.

The state's 179 polling places closed at 9 p.m. Lines and steady streams of voters appeared to be common around the state, according to Journal reports.

Some 43,000-plus new voters registered this year ahead of the contest -- nearly as many as all of the voters who cast ballots in the 2004 primary. About 20,000 of those are between ages 18 and 29. And mail ballot requests rose 230 percent this year.

Previous record for recent presidential primaries was in 2000, when 82,964 Democrats voted and 46,844 Republicans voted. Already, with some precincts left to go, the Democrats' numbers have beaten that.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with reports from projo.com and Journal staff writers

Rhode Island's 21 elected delegates are small fry compared to what the candidates have been fighting over in Texas and Ohio, but the race has remained so close between Clinton and Obama that suddenly Rhode Island mattered this time.

Obama won Vermont tonight while Clinton won Ohio. The two are locked in an apparently hair-breadth-close battle in Texas, where a caucus follows the primary to sort out that state's large trove of delegates.

In Rhode Island, polls leading up to today consistently put Clinton head, but with Obama narrowing the gap.

Through the years, the Clintons have been well-liked in a state they visited often. Even with delegate-rich contests in Texas and Ohio stealing candidates' attention in the final days, the Clintons' daughter, Chelsea, spent much of today in Rhode Island, following a visit last Friday.

Both her mother and former President Bill Clinton also made separate stops in the Ocean State, as did Barack and Michelle Obama, whose brother-in-law is men's basketball coach at Brown University.

Although Democrats outnumber Republicans more than 3 to 1, unaffiliated voters best them combined. Unaffiliated voters were able to vote in either party's primary today.

In the four years since the last presidential primary, cities and towns have closed more than 80 polling places to save money. Secretary of State Ralph Mollis's office set up a phone line for those uncertain of their new polling place.

No major technical problems were reported, but combined high turnout and some new polling places -- given the consolidation to fewer polling spots -- contributed to a few other problems. A remnant of the state's last hot primary election -- between Republicans Lincoln Chafee and then-Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey for Chafee's Senate seat in 2006 -- also appears to be popping up.

Quite a few voters switched to voting Republican in that primary. While they could disaffiliate after the vote, some reports from the polls and calls to The Providence Journal indicated that voters either failed to do so or that some polls do not have a record of their disaffiliation.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 11:35 PM | Permalink

March 4, 2008

Clinton, McCain take R.I. in record-shattering primary

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