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Barak Obama carried Halifax County by a nearly three to one margin in
Tuesday's Democratic primary while Mike Huckabee outpaced front runner
John McCain 1131 to 909 in the Republican primary. McCain won nine of
the County's 22 precincts and tied in one, the Dan River precinct.
Such was not the case for Democrat Hillary Clinton who lost in every
one of the County's 22 precincts. Her closest showing came in the
Midway precinct which she lost 52-35.
Obama had his largest margins in the two South Boston precincts where
in South Boston East he won 269-67 and in South Boston West which he
won 212 to 26. The Meadville precinct also went heavily for Obama, 148
to 20.
Halifax County Registrar Judy Meeler said she figured the primary vote
was about 27 percent of the local registered voters. "I will have to
say I was a little surprised at the turnout; we just generally do not
have that kind of vote in a primary." But she added, "I was really
pleased."
Meeler said she has not had time to assess the total cost of the
primary, but she doesn't think overall it will be nearly as expensive
(per vote) as the last one where every vote ended up costing the County
somewhere between $25 and $26.
Statewide Obama swept the vote early on with National Public Radio
declaring him the winner at 7:07. just seven minutes after the polls
closed. He also was the big winner in the the District of Columbia and
in Maryland where polling time was extended by two and a half hours
because of poor weather conditions,
McCain won all three primaries — Virginia, District of Columbia and
Maryland despite his poorer showing here in Halifax County. He narrowly
edged Huckabee in Virginia, taking 50 percent of the vote to Huckabee's
41 percent.
In Virginia 1.3 million voters turned out at the polls on Tuesday, with
Democrats heavily outnumbering Republicans in the primary where voters
had to declare their party choice before casting their votes. Obama
lost only one of the state's 11 Congressional Districts, that being the
9th.