Staff Writer
AIKEN --- Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama had plenty of support in Aiken County on Saturday, easily taking the most votes there among the day's primary candidates.
Unofficial results from the Aiken County Registration and Election Office showed the Illinois senator receiving 7,722 votes, or 52.8 percent, to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's 4,881 votes, or 33.4 percent.
Former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, a South Carolina native, trailed in third with 1,858 votes, or 12.7 percent.
The tallies don't include provisional votes, where the voter's eligibility to cast a ballot was questioned, or fail-safe provisional ballots, where there is a question about whether the voter should cast a ballot. Those ballots will be counted later this week and will be included in final totals turned in to the state's Election Office.
Despite previous trips to the area this year, none of the candidates stumped in Aiken in the past week. However, Mrs. Clinton's husband, former President Clinton, visited the county Tuesday to tout his wife.
Aiken County's Democratic primary turnout, 17.89 percent, was lower than in the Jan. 19 Republican primary, in which 22.43 percent of voters showed out of the 81,695 registered.
Though Saturday's turnout was lower than some poll managers would have liked, some were encouraged by seeing several new faces.
"We had a lot of first-time voters; some didn't even look old enough to vote," said Rhonda Connelly, a poll manager at Precinct 6 at H. Odell Weeks Recreation Center.
About 20 new voters cast ballots at the precinct, but only 183 of that location's more than 1,200 active voters had come in by 6 p.m.
"This is just more of a Republican area," Ms. Connelly said.
Mr. Obama also took the most votes in Edgefield County, with 1,906 out of 2,919 total votes cast, or 65.3 percent.
Reach Julia Sellers at (803) 648-1395, ext. 106, or julia.sellers@augustachronicle.com.
