Video - Obama wins big here and in S.C.

Barack Obama won big among Lancaster County voters, just as he did among those across the state in the Democratic presidential primary Saturday.

The U.S. senator from Illinois routed Hillary Rodham Clinton in the racially charged South Carolina primary, regaining campaign momentum in the prelude to a Feb. 5 coast-to-coast competition for more than 1,600 Democratic National Convention delegates.

"The choice in this election is not about regions or religions or genders," Obama said at a boisterous victory rally. "It's not about rich versus poor, young versus old and it's not about black versus white. It's about the past versus the future."

Obama rolled up 55 percent of the vote in a three-way race.

About half the voters were black, according to polling place interviews, and four out of five of them supported Obama. Black women turned out in particularly large numbers. Obama, the first-term Illinois senator, got a quarter of the white vote while Clinton and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina split the rest.

Clinton, the former first lady, received about 27 percent of the votes in the state, and Edwards, a South Carolina native, received about 18 percent of the vote.

The victory was Obama's first since he won the kickoff Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3. Clinton scored an upset in the New Hampshire primary a few days later. They split the Nevada caucuses, she winning the turnout race, he gaining a one-delegate margin.

In an historic race, Clinton hopes to become the first woman to occupy the White House, and Obama is the strongest black contender in history.

The South Carolina primary marked the end of the first phase of the campaign for the Democratic nomination, a series of single-state contests that winnowed the field, conferred co-front-runner status on Clinton and Obama but had relatively few delegates at stake

"We have the most votes, the most delegates, and the most diverse coalition of Americans we've seen in a long, long time," Obama said in his victory speech. "They are young and old; rich and poor. They are black and white; Latino and Asian."

Obama praised runners-up Clinton and Edwards without naming them. But he took a veiled shot at the sometimes edgy comments made by the former first lady and former President Clinton in recent days.

"We're looking to fundamentally change the status quo in Washington," Obama said. "And right now, that status quo is fighting back with everything it's got; with the same old tactics that divide and distract us from solving the problems people face."

The S.C. Democratic Party broke its own turnout record in Saturday's presidential primary and eclipsed the number of ballots cast by residents in the Republican primary the week before.

More than 520,000 votes were tabulated cast, easily eclipsing the 280,000 people who voted in the Democratic primary in 2004.

Last week, about 446,000 voters took part in the Republican primary, which was nearly 120,000 off the record set by the GOP in 2000.

Lancaster County totals

In Lancaster County, Obama received 46.47 percent, or 3,495 votes.

Clinton placed second with 2,312 votes, or 30.74 percent of the local vote total.

Edwards trailed with 1,677 votes, or 22.3 percent of the total.

Five other Democrats on the ballot, most of whom have already formally dropped out of the race, received only a handful of votes each.

Joe Biden and Bill Richardson each got 10 votes, Dennis Kucinich got 8 votes, Chris Dodd got 5 and Mike Gravel got 4.

The total number of votes cast in Lancaster County was 7,531.

Voting in Lancaster County

Lancaster resident Joseph M. Young, who voted at the Eastside Academy polling place, said the demographics of the candidates didn't influence his vote.

"I don't care about race in this," he said.

Young said experience in dealing with the important issues of the day, such as health care, factored into his vote Saturday.

"Who is best for us in this country, domestically?" he asked.

At the Bel-Air poll center in Indian Land, some voters said the media were helpful in providing information that affected their decisions.

"That helped me more than anything," said independent voter Jim Lorenz.

But his wife, Beverly, also an independent, wasn't pleased with the media's coverage of the barbs being exchanged between the Clinton and Obama campaigns in recent weeks. They were overplayed by the media, she said.

"That just seemed to fuel it," she said.

John Dorsey of Indian Land scanned the candidates' Web sites for positions on issues such as the global job market, trade issues and health care before voting. He said he was a Republican until recently.

Both he and his wife, Mary Ann, voted for Obama.

"He appears to be able to negotiate and it appears he will talk to our enemies," Dorsey said. "He's educated and hasn't brought race into things."

His wife likes Obama's bipartisanship.

"I like Obama's message for unity because Congress right now isn't functioning," she said.

Working the polls

Many polling places in the county were consolidated for the primary, just as they were last week for the Republican primary.

Hazel Taylor, a Lancaster County Election Commission member, was monitoring voters at Eastside Academy, where the Chesterfield Avenue, Lancaster East and Lancaster West precincts were consolidated.

"I'm making sure poll watchers are where they're supposed to be and that voters are being helped along in an efficient manner," she said. "So far, voters are being well taken care of."

At the Bel-Air precincts, turnout was good and operations were seamless in the morning hours, said Barb Broussard, a county election commission member.

Voting machines were working perfectly, but paper ballots were on hand if the machines went awry.

The number of machines in some consolidated spots were the same as before consolidation, but voters were being moved through quickly. Broussard said that was because there was only one race on the ballot.

Contact Johnathan Ryan at 416-8416 or jryan@thelancasternews.com

The Associated Press contributed to this report; news editor Jamey Shepherd and features editor Gregory A. Summers also contributed to this report