To print this page, select "Print" from the File menu of your browser salon.com > Politics2000 Feb. 19, 2000 URL: http://www.salon.com/politics2000/feature/2000/02/19/poll_scandal South Carolina poll scandal The GOP shut out voters in important black voting precincts Saturday. Was it a conspiracy against John McCain or just incompetence? - - - - - - - - - - - - By Jake Tapper Campaign staffers for Arizona Sen. John McCain were abuzz Saturday morning as information trickled in that 21 voting precincts in Greenville, S.C., had been suddenly closed by representatives of the county GOP. At least three of the voting locations were in predominantly African-American neighborhoods, lending credence -- at least in McCain staffers' minds -- to the conspiracy theory that forces favoring Texas Gov. George W. Bush had conspired to shut down the polls to suppress the turnout of individuals likely to vote for McCain. McCain has been lustily wooing Democrats and independents for Saturday's GOP primary. South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Henry McMaster said a lack of manpower caused the problem -- since the party relies on volunteers to staff the precincts. The charge that Bush allies would so blatantly try to suppress voter turnout -- which McCain and his staff were careful not to specifically make -- was based on sheer speculation. Many political observers have noted that the Bush campaign's barrage of "push polls" and vitriolic TV and radio advertisements is at least partially an effort to turn off voters -- which in theory is harmful to McCain because he tends to attract more self-disfranchised voters. Reporters' interest was piqued when McCain staffers said that Greenville County GOP Chairman Warren Mowry had endorsed Bush, which Mowry denies. "I do not believe that as the chairman of a county party involved in a contested primary I should be anything but neutral," Mowry said Saturday afternoon in a phone interview. But at one closed precinct in Greenville, the county's neutrality seemed questionable. If a voting location is moved, the state GOP is required by law to either station a person at the site to give directions to the alternate site or use "prominently displayed written notice" of the new voting locale. At the voting precinct at Rocky Creek Baptist Church, a "George W. Bush" sticker was attached to the cardboard sign on which directions to the new locale were written. Bryant Rhone looked at those directions before heading to the new site. A 27-year-old registered Republican, Rhone said he would vote for McCain. "He's a military man," said Rhone, an employee at defense contractor Lockheed who served seven years in the military. "I liked Bush. And I became disappointed. You know, the first place he decided to speak to was Bob Jones University. That didn't seem right -- especially with the racial tensions in South Carolina. I just don't think he was sensitive to the black vote at all." "The governor has said all along that he wants every precinct to be open, and we believe them to be so," said Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer when asked about the 21 precincts that are unquestionably, indisputably closed. "As you know, we don't have to open up all the precincts," said state GOP Executive Director J. Sam Daniels. "In 1996, only 40 percent of our locations opened up. This time, 80 percent are opened up." It's true that "21 of the precincts had to be consolidated" with other voting locales, Daniels said, and "only three of the 21 are considered to be majority-black districts." As with all of the dirt, roadblocks, bumps, hurdles and pitfalls put in McCain's path in his race to win the South Carolina primary, it is doubtful that anyone will ever be able to prove collusion with the Bush campaign in this incident. Saturday morning, McCain called for "a complete and full investigation" into the matter. "Are there no depths ...?" he started to ask, before letting his words trail off. The Bush campaign hasn't lent itself much credence in its waging of a bitter and mean-spirited campaign against McCain. Even if the Bush campaign had absolutely zero to do with the negative push polls, e-mails and literature attacking McCain's personal life and family, Bush hasn't done anything to disavow them. Long before the South Carolina GOP was accused of working against McCain, it was accused of setting up hurdles for African-American voters. The South Carolina Republican Party was named in a U.S. District Court lawsuit by two African-American Democratic state legislators, Todd Rutherford and James Pitts, who have taken the state GOP to task for violating the Voting Rights Act by not opening polling places in majority-black districts. For example, in 1996 in Williamsburg County -- which is 80 percent African-American -- the state GOP opened for business in only five of 23 voting districts. Last month, party chairman Henry McMaster told the Charleston Post and Courier, "We are attempting to open up every precinct. There are some [that] because of a lack of manpower, we will not be able to keep them open. We will have to consolidate them." Pursuant to that legal challenge, U.S. District Court judges issued a consent order Monday instructing the GOP to make its "best efforts" to "utilize and open each of the available polling places." If circumstances prohibited 100 percent utilization, the consent order stated, the party was to take out an ad "in a newspaper of general circulation" by Friday to inform voters of the alternate sites. Mowry and McMaster acknowledged that the ad they took out did not appear in the Greenville News until Saturday, a violation of the consent order. "We had a lot of bad luck" in getting volunteers, Mowry said. "When you are asking people to volunteer to give up a Saturday ... people think about giving up a weekend, and that's just not a very attractive invitation." Mowry said he was doing everything he could to ensure that African-American voters were able to vote in the primary. Speaking from a cell phone, he said, "I am personally sitting in a majority-black precinct today" -- at the Church of the Redeemer. Additionally, Mowry griped that he had slept for only one hour the night before because he was hanging new precinct alerts "in a dozen of those places last night and this morning." McCain supporters wondered if Bush supporters would really close down precincts in violation of the law. Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of McCain's supporters, said he was having his lawyer look into it. "If it's true, then we're a better party than that," McCain said later as he sat in the back of the "Straight Talk Express" with his family on their way from Greenville to North Charleston, where his post-primary celebration will be held. "It's surprising to hear of stuff like this. Maybe I'm naive." "John, look," said his wife, Cindy, pointing to three of their children, sitting and playing nearby. "Whenever things get really bad, look at the kids," she said. "They made hand puppets." Meghan, 15, Jimmy, 11, and Bridget, 8, were playing with puppets they'd created by drawing with magic markers on paper bags. Cindy said she'd "taught it to them years ago on planes," using air-sickness bags. I suggested that making puppets out of air sickness bags wasn't a bad metaphor for what the family might try to do in response to its experience in South Carolina, where the family has been viciously attacked by enemies of the candidate. Cindy smiled sadly. McCain then phoned up the widow of a man who had died of a heart attack he suffered before a McCain event in Hilton Head, S.C. Later, in the spacious auditorium where reporters were filing their stories and the sound technicians were blasting techno music in preparation for McCain's speech Saturday night, few seemed confident that McCain was going to have a good evening. One reporter noted a concession stand's immense "CONCESSION" sign on the wall. Kerry Lauerman contributed to this report. salon.com | Feb. 19, 2000   - - - - - - - - - - - - About the writer Jake Tapper is the Washington correspondent for Salon News.