South Carolina poll scandal

The GOP shut out voters in important black voting precincts Saturday. Was it a conspiracy against John McCain or just incompetence?

Uh, are these the only options? How about "it's South Carolina and the GOP regularly treats black South Carolinians like second-class citizens"? To wit, they still refuse to take down the hateful Confederate "battle flag" that flies over the SC State House.

This also raises another question: did McCain really expect to get any of the black vote in South Carolina? After all, his family apparently owned slaves in Mississippi during the antebellum era. If there's something here to be investigated, surely what is most crucial is possible violations of voting rights law, not whether the SC Bush machine deprived McCain of a few votes. After all, it's the right of black people to vote that's possibly been violated.