Carroll Democrats turned out in droves to vote in the primary election, nearly equaling the number of Republican voters in the ultra conservative county.
Almost 40 percent of registered Democrats in Carroll cast ballots, most for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. About 29 percent of registered Republicans voted, many for Arizona Sen. John McCain.
“That?s been the national pattern, too,” said Herbert Smith, a local politics expert and political science professor at McDaniel College. “Democratic turnout has been higher this year than in the past. It?s been an incredible race.”
McCain has the Republican nomination all but locked up, but Democrats are pushing candidates that could either become the first female or first black president, creating a whirlwind of excitement that has engulfed even the most conservative areas of the state.
But unlike many other districts throughout Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., where Illinois Sen. Barack Obama trounced Clinton, Carroll Democrats leaned slightly toward the former first lady. She captured about 48 percent of the vote in Carroll to Obama?s 45 percent.
Smith attributed that to the size of the county?s black population, about 2 percent of the total.
Polls in Maryland were kept open an extra 90 minutes because of inclement weather and congested traffic, but few voters trickled in after 8 p.m., the original cutoff time, said Gail Carter, Carroll?s elections director.
Four judges coming from the Sykesville area were in an accident because of the slick roads, and they were still in the hospital Wednesday afternoon, Carter said.
“That was the sad part of the whole day,” she said. “That was the only flaw. All of them are going to be OK, it?s just a shame that had to happen.”
