A busy, historic day at S.C. polls

By Lisa Wangsness, Globe Staff

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- When Mae Golston voted for Barack Obama today, she was thinking about her father. A sharecropper with a sixth-grade education, he was not allowed to finish his schooling because he had to work in the fields.

"He would have loved this," she said, as her 5-year-old daughter S'honna skipped and scampered about W.A. Perry Middle School in downtown Columbia. "He would have loved this."

Polling places saw heavy turnout in South Carolina, the first Southern state on this year’s Democratic nominating calendar and the first with a heavily African-American electorate. A win for Obama, the first viable African-American presidential candidate in history, could bode well for him in other states with sizable black populations.

In the state that was first to secede from the Union before the Civil War and that still flies the Confederate flag in front of its State House, excitement about Obama among African-American voters was palpable.

Cynthia Cook, 58, a retired nurse, was beaming as she left an adult education center in downtown Columbia after casting her vote for Obama. "I lived through the civil rights era, and he is a dream come true," she said.

Andre Young, a 36-year-old chef from Columbia, started out a Clinton supporter, but after he saw Obama speak at a massive rally with Oprah Winfrey in December, he changed his mind.

"It was exciting to see both of them in the same place, and the African-American community all unified, without some foolishness or violence, for something positive," said Young.

Not all black voters who backed Obama, however, said their decision was based on race. Lonnie Dickerson, a 48-year-old truck driver from Columbia, said he would be happy with either Obama or Clinton, but he went with Obama because he decided the Illinois senator had been the clearest and most consistent advocate for sweeping changes in Washington.

"I just liked his message," he said. "This country really cries out for real change."

For many voters -- particularly women, who had the chance to nominate a viable woman candidate for the first time -- today's choice was a wrenching one. Barbara Pate, a 61-year-old dental office manager who is white, was so torn that that before she entered her polling place, she sat in her car and prayed for guidance.

Both candidates, she said, had the leadership qualities, empathy for working class people, and a deep understanding of the issues. But when she walked into the voting booth, she decided to go with Clinton.

"I would vote for Obama in a few years, when he gets a little more experience," she said. "The experience was the whole thing in a nutshell."