The South Dakota Secretary of State's website says voter turnout was 37.21% yesterday. I don't recall specific numbers, but my general recollection is that's pretty good for a primary.
Primaries unfortunately don't excite a lot of average voters; they aren't interested in making the choices where they REALLY count, but unfortunately are always there to gripe about how "there's no difference" between the two party's candidates in the general election.
Here is a screen shot of the party breakdown in South Dakota yesterday:
Why was the Democrat turnout so high compared to Republican? It could be that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama practically camped out in the state for the last couple of weeks. That should be enough to get Dems stirred up.
And let's face it: John McCain is one of the LAST candidates conservative Republicans wanted to see. Besides, the Republican presidential primary has been over for several months. While there are several state and federal elections that are very important, it's presidential elections that excite people, and that's been a done-deal on the Republican side for a long time.
But how many of these "Democrats" who turned out were Rush Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos" voters?
I listened to Rush's radio show yesterday and heard at least a couple of callers from South Dakota who said they were Operation Chaos voters (Republicans who re registered Democrat in the primary so they could vote for Hillary and keep her in the race, causing "chaos" for Obama).
She did win South Dakota last night, 55.34% to 44.66%. I would venture more than a few of those South Dakota Democrat voters were Republican operatives in Operation Chaos. I heard numbers cited--even from the "mainstream" media--in other states in recent months that put the number of Operation Chaos voters at 50,000 per state or more.
The thought crossed my mind to become an Operation Chaos operative. The thought was wildly and perversely pleasurable for a brief moment, kind of like the thrill you might get at doing something totally reckless and insane, or like breaking a taboo.
Not that it probably really mattered a whole lot by yesterday, since the Clinton machine appears to be finally sputtering to a stop.
There were simply state Republican races that were too important for me not to vote the right way. There were clear choices among many Republican legislative candidates, and there was even in my own district.
Who knows if we'll find out how many of those Democrat voters yesterday were Operation Chaos operatives. But I'm certain they're at least partially responsible for the high Democrat turnout.
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Wednesday, June 04, 2008
South Dakota Voter Turnout
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