Here and elsewhere people have made much of the number of votes the Pseudo-Rev Al Greene pulled on 11/02. Personally, I think a batshit crazy whatever is a better alternative than Jim DeMento. And, no doubt a few South Carolinians probably felt safe voting for Pseudo-Al in protest.
More importantly, those commenting overlooked the fact that South Carolina uses the BIG LEVER for voting.
16 states still offer straight-ticket or party line voting. In these states with a few exceptions, the straight-ticket option is available in all elections, including primaries, and applies to all offices on the ticket, including federal, state and local races. The states with STV are:
Alabama
Oklahoma
Indiana
Pennsylvania
Iowa
Rhode Island
Kentucky
South Carolina
Michigan
Texas
New Jersey
Utah
New Mexico
West Virginia
North Carolina
Wisconsin
When many, even most people were illiterate and information on candidates was hard to come by anyway, Party Line Voting made good sense.
Even now, an argument can be made for PLV if easy individual voter preference overrides are built into the system.
Of course, a better argument can be made for informed voters; but whachagonnado?.