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March 4, 2008

Clinton, McCain looking like winners in R.I.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is beating Barack Obama in today's Rhode Island Democratic presidential primary, 30,075 to 18,443, with 54 of 179 of polling places reporting, according to unofficial state Board of Elections results.

Republican John McCain, the Arizona senator, was easily beating former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, 4626 to 1664, with 50 precincts reporting, the unofficial results show.

Results are now being posted on the state Board of Elections Web site.

Polls leading up to today had consistently put Clinton, the New York senator, ahead, but with Obama, the Illinois senator, narrowing the gap in the hotly contested race.

But what may become the most historic number of all in Rhode Island is the total number of ballots cast today, as state and local officials signaled an unprecedented turnout for a presidential primary.

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.

Few technical glitches were reported, though some voters complained of confusion over whether they had disaffiliated or not from previous elections.

Also a problem: Some voters didn't know where to go to vote. Polling places have been closed since the last election to save money, and there are routinely fewer polls for primary elections. Both may have also contributed to longer lines.

The record turnout for the state's presidential primaries held since 1988 was in 2000, when 82,964 Democrats voted and 46,844 Republicans voted.

Registered Democrats now outnumber Republicans more than three to one, but there are more unaffiliated voters than those parties combined. Unaffiliated voters were allowed to vote in either party's primary.

This evening, Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis’ office reported a record number of people voted in Greater Providence.

“We’ve been visiting the polling places in Greater Providence -- Warwick, East Providence, Cranston -- and poll workers are saying this is the heaviest turnout they’ve ever seen,” Mollis spokesman Chris Barnett said in the evening.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with reports Pam Cotter of projo.com com and Journal staff

Calls to a polling-place information hotline were constant, Barnett said. “We can handle six calls at a time, and we’ve received nearly 3,000 calls since this morning,” almost without a break, he said earlier. “The two most common questions are, where do I vote? And am I registered?”

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 presidential primary. About 20,000 of those are between ages 18 and 29. And mail ballot requests shot up 230 percent this year.

Twice as many ballots as normal were printed for today. More poll workers and additional voting booths were dispatched to precincts to try to stave off long waits.

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 with voting equipment during the day. But what may have been 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 -- appeared to cause some issues.

Quite a few voters switched to voting Republican in that primary, and some reports from the polls and calls to The Providence Journal today indicated that voters either failed to disaffiliate since then or that some polls did not have a record of their disaffiliation.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 9:49 PM | Permalink

Comments

I used to think that RI democrats were at the cutting edge of the party. After seeing the voting results with a lopsided victory for Ms. Clinton, I am shocked by the result. Thank heaven for the sanity of Vermont!

Ned Ward | March 4, 2008 10:39 PM link

March 4, 2008

Clinton, McCain looking like winners in R.I.

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