Charles Staples checks out one of the voting booths at the H Odell Weeks Activity Center in Aiken Monday in preparation for Tuesday's democratic primary. RON COCKERILLE

Poll finds many voters undecided

AIKEN - The two Democratic presidential front-runners, John Kerry and John Edwards, are in a tight race going into today's South Carolina Democratic Party primary, but polls show almost a quarter of the likely voters remain undecided.

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Graphic gives general overview of South Carolina's political system, includes number of delegates, population distribution, and past election results. Click on the graphic for a larger version. Kathryn Tam

Mr. Edwards, a U.S. senator from North Carolina, was born in the Palmetto State and has said he must win here for his candidacy to survive. He held a lead of 29 percent to 24 percent over Mr. Kerry, his Senate colleague from Massachusetts, according to a weekend poll by InsiderAdvantage, an Atlanta survey and marketing firm.

However, the same poll shows that 23 percent of the state's likely voters still haven't made a choice among the seven candidates.

The last day for convincing the undecided was muddied by a flap over a requirement that voters sign an oath vowing that they are Democrats, a mandate state party officials dropped Monday afternoon in response to protests. Party officials also declined to estimate today's turnout, saying only that the total number of voters would fall between 100,000 and more than 300,000.

Both numbers fall short of the 376,000 voters who showed up for the hotly contested GOP presidential primary battle between George W. Bush and U.S. Sen. John McCain, of Arizona, in 2000.

Aiken County, a Republican Party bastion, will see a turnout of about 4,000 voters, said Stuart Bedenbaugh, the executive director of the Aiken County Registration and Elections Commission. In 2000, about 23,000 voters showed up for the contest between Mr. Bush and Mr. McCain, he said.

After many phone calls from irate voters and protests from elected Democrats, Joe Erwin, the state party chairman, dropped the oath requirement which read: "I consider myself to be a Democrat."

That didn't stop Republicans from criticizing their rivals for trying to make today's vote an exclusive affair.

"It is the stupidest political move since New Coke and the Red Sox deciding to trade Babe Ruth," said Luke Byars, the executive director of the South Carolina Republican Party. "It is exclusionary, at best, and runs against everything that political parties stand for today."

Left in place, the oath could have scared off voters such as Brian Johnson, of Aiken, who had voted Republican in the past but is considering a switch.

"Four years ago I was strictly Bush, but this year I'm open to hear what they (Democrats) have to say," said Mr. Johnson, who expressed concern about the economy. "I just want to see things going good again."

Local Democrats were clearly uncomfortable with the oath, particularly for a first-in-the-South contest and given the region's history of disenfranchising blacks with literacy tests and poll taxes.

"We are not going to let it become an issue," Charles Staples, the chairman of the Aiken County Democratic Party, said before the oath was rescinded.

About 150 absentee ballots have been cast in Aiken County, including Patricia Horvath's, who said she voted for Mr. Edwards.

She said she liked the Tarheel senator's enthusiasm and pledge to improve heath care.

"I have a lot of confidence in him," she said during a visit he made to Aiken on Friday. "He's talking about the future, not bad-mouthing the other candidates."

Reach Jim Nesbitt and Josh Gelinas at (803) 648-1394.

--From the Tuesday, February 3, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle