In Georgia, a tight Senate race and a Libertarian presidential candidate

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Bah-bah-bah-bah! All right, so part of The Takeaway’s experience of Election Day is to exit poll all of you who are voting.

[BEEPS]

GILBERT SULLIVAN:

My name is Gilbert Sullivan. I’m calling from Baltimore, Maryland. I’m 64 years old. I never thought I would see a black man come this far to be President of the United States, and I hope my vote help him to win this election.

[TONES]

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Be a part of America’s Exit Poll at 877-8MYTAKE. And part of The Takeaway’s ground game is Adaora Udoji down live at WCLK in Atlanta, Georgia. Adaora?

ADAORA UDOJI:

Good morning. And sitting next to me is our friend, The Takeaway’s pal, Professor William Boone, who is a political science professor at Clark Atlanta University. He’s also the dean of graduate studies and he’s an expert in all things politics in Georgia. So thanks for being with us, as always.

WILLIAM BOONE:

Thanks for the invite. Appreciate it.

ADAORA UDOJI:

So what’s happening in the State of Georgia where you have people predicting perhaps it will be the shocker of the election?

WILLIAM BOONE:

Yeah well, good thing ? a good many things are happening, as we’ve talked about earlier. Apparently the economic crisis has hit Georgia in a big way, as you know. The state’s unemployment rate is over six percent. A good many of the large companies here are leaving the state. And we’re just having a big turnaround. The Governor’s been very, very inept in handling some major crises in the state, and all of this is coming down on him now, apparently.

ADAORA UDOJI:

Okay, so let’s talk about the details. Here in Fulton County, which is where Atlanta is, a record turnout. You had an astonishingly huge black turnout across the state, 36 percent, which is something that you just cannot believe happened.

[OVERTALK]

WILLIAM BOONE

I, I can’t believe it. It ? that is astounding because a good deal of that has been black voters. And generally black voters do not do the absentee ballot thing. But this time around it’s, it’s 36 percent, and most of that is from the metro area, which is predominantly African-American.

And another interesting fact is that a good portion of that has been female voters. Of the two-and-a-half, three million folk who have voted, I understand the last that I got was about 900,000 of these were female voters. [LAUGHS]

ADAORA UDOJI:

So, in reading the tealeaves, what does that say to you?

WILLIAM BOONE:

Well, I think it says a lot. I think especially if you talk about African-American women, they vote in large numbers in terms of percentages, so I suspect that a large proportion of that is African-American women. And based on what we also know, women are leaning towards Barack Obama.

ADAORA UDOJI:

It is a red state.

WILLIAM BOONE:

It is, yeah.

ADAORA UDOJI:

It’s gone red since 1992 –

WILLIAM BOONE:

Oh, yeah.

ADAORA UDOJI:

– for President, in 2002 elected a Republican senator in Saxby Chambliss, and we’ll get to that in a second.

But there are 159 counties-

WILLIAM BOONE:

Right.

ADAORA UDOJI:

– in the state. What have ? how would you sum up what we’ve been seeing in the last couple of weeks in the early voting and in the turnout in those Republican strongholds?

WILLIAM BOONE:

In those Republican strongholds, the turnout has not ? the early voting has not been as dramatic as it has been in the metro Atlanta area, which is probably an indication of some indecision maybe, by these folk, and also an indication that you’ve not had the kind of strong organizational thrust in those more rural areas that you’ve had in the metro area, where the great deal of the population is, ?cause remember, of those 159 counties, most are under 10,000 [LAUGHS] people, so it’s not ? they’re not huge counties.

And they have, for the last 100-plus years, even during Democratic rule, been controlled by very conservatives who moved from the Democratic ranks to the Republican ranks very recently.

ADAORA UDOJI:

So are there particular counties that you are going to be keeping your eye on today –

WILLIAM BOONE:

Yes.

ADAORA UDOJI:

– as we hear the results coming in?

WILLIAM BOONE:

Yeah, I’d be particularly interested in counties in the southern part of the state. I’d like to see how Crisp County’s going to do, how people on the Cordele’s going to do, I’d like to see how people in Savannah are going to do, mainly because these are fairly strong Republican strongholds in very conservative areas. And they have not necessarily voted for blacks. Although we’ve had a couple of blacks to win statewide elections, those have been under rather interesting circumstances.

But nevertheless, I think I’m going to watch those particular counties ? Augusta, Columbus, watch those areas and see what the vote is on some ?

[OVERTALK]

ADAORA UDOJI:

The Southern –

[OVERTALK]

WILLIAM BOONE:

– yeah.

ADAORA UDOJI:

The Southern counties.

WILLIAM BOONE:

Right, the Southern.

ADAORA UDOJI:

Let’s talk about this Senate race, Saxby Chambliss ?

WILLIAM BOONE:

Yes.

ADAORA UDOJI:

We’ve talked about this before on the show. Very unexpectedly he finds himself in a real battle with Jim Martin.

WILLIAM BOONE:

A tremendous surprise. I mean, Saxby Chambliss went into this race with a five-million-dollar war chest and thinking he had the easy ride, but against a very mild person [LAUGHS] named Jim Martin.

Martin has come up in his own – it’s a dead heat. And I think the introduction of Mr. Buckley, the libertarian in the race, is causing some apprehensions on the Republican side because he’s drawing ? if he’s going to draw votes, he’s going to draw them away from that.

To get into a runoff, more than likely there are two key factors. One will be whether or not Martin can turn the African-American vote back out, because that’s what he’s heavily dependent upon right now to get into a runoff or a victory, or/and that is that the folk who wanted to vote for Saxby Chambliss the first time out would do it [LAUGHS] the first time out. And that’s usually been the idea. But there are two traditions here.

ADAORA UDOJI:

And that rule for the runoff here in Georgia is – one of them has got to get 50 percent of the vote –

WILLIAM BOONE:

Fifty plus –

ADAORA UDOJI:

– plus one vote.

WILLIAM BOONE:

Plus one vote.

ADAORA UDOJI:

And with this libertarian candidate, it’s entirely possible –

WILLIAM BOONE:

Possible.

ADAORA UDOJI:

– that neither one of them will get that.

WILLIAM BOONE:

Yeah. Yeah, because he’s pulling – the libertarian, that is, Mr. Buckley’s pulling anywhere between two and three percent of the vote. And if that maintains itself and shows up at the polls, than more than likely we’re going to have a runoff, which would be very – extraordinarily interesting, because you have to mount another campaign for Martin to get his people out.

ADAORA UDOJI:

As a student of politics, what have you found most stunning about this election run? We’re talking 22 months or so.

WILLIAM BOONE:

Twenty-two months. You’re talking almost two years. And what ? what I’ve found most interesting has been the shattering of old rules about politics, and that is particularly one about whether or not whites would vote for blacks in large numbers. And I think across the country, Obama has demonstrated that they will.

Now, the question’s whether or not that’s going to hold throughout the general election, whether or not your best interests are going to trump race.

ADAORA UDOJI:

And let’s talk about that as it applies to other Southern states.

WILLIAM BOONE:

Mm-hmm.

ADAORA UDOJI:

I mean, there are fierce Senate races in Mississippi, in Kentucky, and clearly in North Carolina, Elizabeth Dole in a very tight race there.

[OVERTALK]

WILLIAM BOONE:

Yes, she’s on the edge there.

ADAORA UDOJI:

Are we seeing a landscape shift?

WILLIAM BOONE:

Yeah. If indeed – if indeed the Democrats can sustain themselves, you’ll really see a shift. The Democrats, if they can grab hold of those states you mentioned, then there’s a new day for the Democratic Party in the South.

ADAORA UDOJI:

Professor William Boone, we’re always glad to have you. Thanks so much.

[OVERTALK]

Professor William Boone is a dean of graduate studies and a professor of political science here at Clark Atlanta University. John?

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

William Boone is a great student of politics, Adaora. And I’m really wondering who the libertarian is polling there in that really important Senate race.

[MUSIC UP AND UNDER]

And, you know, Saxby Chambliss is also, I think, getting a little bit of a revenge response from the Democratic Party who want [LAUGHS] that seat back that was taken from Max Cleland.

WLLIAM BOONE:

Max Cleland.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Yeah William, thanks so much for being a part of the show.

WILLIAM BOONE:

Thank you.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

It’s going to be a great day to watch. Where are you watching the returns tonight?

WILLIAM BOONE:

Well, I’m walking all around the metro area. [LAUGHS]

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

And well, just don’t go to any of Adaora’s parties. They’re way too wild.

WILLIAM BOONE:

Oh! I’m glad to hear that. [LAUGHS]

[LAUGHTER]

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Everything fine down there in the Southern perch, Adaora?

ADAORA UDOJI:

Absolutely. The sun is shinin’, and that’s certainly going to help everyone get to the polls and cast that ballot.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Well, thank goodness you’re not in North Carolina. It’s raining all over the state. Andrea Bernstein is with me here in New York. We’re always on at The Takeaway. We’re holding America’s Exit Poll and hearing the stories of when you cast your vote.

[BEEPING SOUND]

WOMAN:

We voted to make history. It was a very good feeling.

WOMAN:

I almost made a hole in my paper ballot, making sure that I got his circle blackened out.

MAN:

There were more cars and people than I’ve ever seen in my life.

WOMAN:

This is the most exciting [LAUGHS] thing I’ve ever participated in.

MAN:

I just left polling and I could not believe the amazing turnout. I’m driving to the train station. I’ve passed four different polling places, and there’s a line of cars about a half a mile long outside of every one of them. We’ve never seen it like this before.

[TONES]

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

All across America, and polls are going to be opening in other states around the country in the next three minutes. Call us at 877-8MYTAKE with your impressions of America’s democracy today.

We’re sharing photos, video and audio from your voting day, when you wake up, when you vote, when the race is called. Go to The Takeaway’s website at Thetakeaway.org to share your experience of democracy in America’s Exit Poll. This is The Takeaway. I’m John Hockenberry.