Combined South Carolina vote total

[Nym90]

Whether it is meaningful or not remains to be seen. The Democratic turnout in every state is way up from 2004, and Republican turnout is down from 2000. Those are facts, make of them what you will.

Now obviously in 2000 there was more incentive for Dems to vote in the GOP primary than there is now, but in 2004 there was more incentive for Repubs to vote in the Dem primary than there is now. So I'd say those factors balance out.

The only reason it's not at least somewhat meaningful is if there is any evidence to suggest that those who don't vote in primaries at all are going to vote Republican in the general, or that those who are voting in the Democratic primary are more likely than those voting in the Republican primary to ultimately not vote in the general (I highly doubt there are very many people who vote in the primary but not in the general).

I don't see many of the voters who are voting for the candidates who ultimately lose the nomination in either party's primaries crossing over and voting for the opposite party candidate in the general, especially not those voting in the Democratic primaries.