Democrat Barack Obama rolled to victory in Maryland yesterday by getting an overwhelming percentage of the African-American vote and running about even among whites, winning handily in the Baltimore area and suburban Washington, according to exit polling.
Obama, the first African-American nominee of a major American party, took almost 95 percent of the black vote in Maryland, exit polling showed. The Illinois Democrat won among voters of all levels of education in one of the most one-sided contests in the country.
The Maryland exit poll was conducted by Edison Media Research for a consortium of media outlets, including The Baltimore Sun and WYPR. Results were based on as many as 997 interviews with voters upon leaving selected precincts. The fierce back-and-forth of the final two months of the campaign between Obama and Republican John McCain apparently had no effect on two-thirds of Marylanders, who made up their minds before September and stuck by their decision. Only about one in 10 Marylanders made a decision in the final week of the campaign..
Obama appears to have prevailed largely by persuading voters that he - not his Republican rival -- would be the true agent of change in a state where President Bush's approval ratings are scraping the political bottom.
About 55 percent of Maryland voters said McCain would continue Bush's policies, and that group went more than 9-to-1 for Obama. Forty percent accepted his argument that he would take the country in a different direction.
Wayne Scott, 73, of Hampden, is a registered Democrat. He retired after 20 years with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Navy before that. He attended the Naval Academy with John McCain and was in his graduating class, although he said he does not personally know the Arizona senator. He cast his ballot for Obama.
"I have some feeling that not voting for McCain is being disloyal to a classmate, but like Obama says, the country needs change," Scott said. "The president needs to be smart enough to surround himself with people who are smarter than they are. It's pretty obvious to me that Obama has significantly better people around him."
For Mark Branson Sr., 47, the desire for change was strong enough to impel him to cross party lines. A registered Republican voting at the Lombard Middle School in East Baltimore, he was casting his first-ever vote for a Democrat.
"It's time for a change," he said, echoing others.
