Kucinich received 52% of the vote total, a far lower percentage of the vote than the Congressman received in previous Democratic primaries.

That is a switch from previous primaries, when Mr. Bush called the senator too liberal for the party.

Unlike previous primaries, the selection took place at an open meeting open to the public, as opposed to a postal ballot.

"This is the best campaign organization I have ever seen," said Mayor Sandy Freedman of Tampa, who has been through many previous Presidential primaries.

However, unlike previous primaries, voting took place at a public meeting rather than by a postal ballot.

The 70-to-30 downstate-upstate ratio was consistent with previous primaries.

In sharp contrast to previous primaries, 76 percent of the voters surveyed in New Jersey said they had settled on a candidate more than two weeks before election day.

He chatted cheerfully with a half dozen people, traded barbs with three hecklers over reports that he had not voted in previous primaries, then left.

No one had complained before, but the South Carolina Republican Party acknowledged that it did not use all of the state's polling places in previous presidential primaries.

He attracted about the same number of city votes that he did in two previous primaries, and benefited mightily from Ms. Messinger's poor showing.