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Article published Apr 15, 2003
Black voter turnout in November election higher than thought

The Associated Press

CHARLESTON -- More black voters turned out in the November election than previously thought, recently released voting numbers show.
The numbers show nearly 285,000 blacks went to the polls in November, 3,000 more than in the 1998 election. Supporters say the turnout vindicates a computer-driven strategy that Democrat U.S. Rep Jim Clyburn calls "foolishness."
Even with the 3,000 extra black voters, Democratic Gov. Jim Hodges lost a bid for a second term and Democrat Alex Sanders lost to Republican Lindsey Graham in the U.S. Senate race to replace retiring Sen. Strom Thurmond.
"You can't say that Gov. Hodges and Alex Sanders lost because African-American turnout wasn't high enough because it was," said Will Drake of Hoover, Ala. Using $3 million from the party, Drake and Jon Carson of LaCrosse, Wis., used voter registration rolls to build a computer database of more than 300,000 South Carolina "weak-voting African-American Democrats."
Some were called as many as five times and received mail urging them to go to the polls. The goal was to have a quarter of the total vote come from African-Americans. The actual turnout was 25.4 percent, Drake said.
Democrats turned to the strategy because they worried there were fewer incentives for black voters to turn out than in 1998, a record year. At the time the fight over the Confederate flag flying above the Statehouse dome was brewing and video gambling money was influencing the election.
Immediately after the 2002 election, Clyburn and other Democrats criticized the computer-driven strategy, saying party leaders dumped traditional grass roots efforts: yard signs, advertising in black newspapers and neighborhood canvassing.
That's why the party took a thumping, they said.
"I would never leave my political fortune up to that foolishness they were doing," said Clyburn, who represents the 6th Congressional District. "We need to do what we've always done and stop using all these newfangled impersonal methods."
He said getting people to vote with a "robotic stimulus" isn't the way to go.
"I think Representative Clyburn is used to doing things the old way and wasn't willing to admit that there are ways to campaign other than putting out yard signs or giving money to any self-proclaimed community leaders," said Reid Anderegg, who helped run the Democrats' coordinated campaign in Charleston County. "That's the old way. It doesn't work anymore."
While black turnout may have met expectations, white independent voters broke strongly in favor of Republicans.
"Obviously, Democrats have to also focus on attracting more white voters in future elections, and their strategy has to take that in consideration as well," College of Charleston political scientist Bill Moore said.