As a follow-up to this post, here is how McCain was able to put together a narrow plurality in Saturday’s South Carolina Republican primary. As in 2000, McCain did best along the coast, including Charleston and resort areas such as Hilton Head. Unlike the contest of eight years ago, however, this time McCain was able to carry Lexington County, a major source of Republican votes outside of Columbia.

McCain got about 138,000 votes statewide, which was actually considerably less than the 231,000 votes he got while losing to George W. Bush. In Charleston County, his victory margin zoomed from 3,663 to 9,584, but he still got a lot fewer votes (15,155 vs. 23,516 eight years ago). But with a low turnout and a larger field of candidates (the margins on the map are over second-place finisher Mike Huckabee), McCain didn’t need nearly as many votes to win.