Aiken County's Democrats celebrate Obama's victory

Staff photo by Rachel Johnson

Unofficial results from the Aiken County Registrations and Elections office show heavy voter turnout Tuesday, with about 77 percent of Aiken's 91,254 registered voters participated in the 2008 general election. Based on reports from 77 precincts counted, 70,254 ballots were cast in the election. The turnout was a couple of percentage points higher than in the 2004 general election which drew about 75 percent of Aiken County voters. Stuart Bedenbaugh, executive director of the elections office said there are still about 1,000 provisional ballots left to be counted.

Heavy voter turnout led to long lines at the polls Tuesday. Voters began lining up at polling places before the 7 a.m. opening, with waits of around an hour at many sites. Bedenbaugh said the Ascaugua Lake 63 precinct at Mt. Transfiguration Baptist Church had some of the longest lines reported with an average wait time of about three hours for voters. The process began moving quicker at the precinct after multiple lines to check in the large masses of voters were created. Bedenbaugh said the wait to vote varied at other polling precincts. Some sites, such as Kennedy Middle School, had substantial lines, while other large polling sites such as H. Odell Weeks Activities Center, St. Mary's and Aiken High School, had much shorter wait times.

County election officials tallied the ballots as they arrived at the USC Aiken Convocation Center Tuesday evening, and Republican candidates took an early lead as the results arrived; with most going on to win their respective races. "It looks like we did our job," said Dennis Saylor, chairman of the Aiken County Republican Party. The Republican Party held a victory party at Papa Russ's BBQ Tuesday night to celebrate candidates victories and to recognize the work of Republican volunteers, Saylor said.

"In the local area we are winning overwhelmingly in Aiken County. We are interested in the Presidential race, Senatorial race, Joe Wilson's race and Gresham Barrett," said Col. David B. Lobb, Aiken County Republican Party Vice Chairman. Lobb, who worked at the polls throughout the day, said to him, the turnout in Tuesday's election felt the same as it did four years ago-big in the morning and then tapering off to just a few people in the afternoon.

On election night, Aiken County Democratic Party Chairman John Brecht monitored the results from inside the Aiken County Campaign for Change office. Though many of the local and state races seemed to go to Republican candidates, Brecht said he was proud of the "phenomenal work of Democratic volunteers," and was hopeful U.S. Sen. Barack Obama would carry the presidential race for the ticket.

"The campaign went great," said Brecht. "We had a plan for the state party and for Obama. We had so many committed volunteers, we made a plan and worked it out. We learned a lot during the primaries on how to run the ground campaign and organized the South Carolina campaign for change."

"The campaign began four years ago when Barrack Obama gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. It became evident then that he was a leader. I have my camera here to take historic pictures on a historic night," said Brecht.