McCain is projected winner in S.C.

COLUMBIA, S.C., Jan. 19 (UPI) -- Arizona Sen. John McCain has won the South Carolina presidential primary, CNN and MSNBC projected Saturday with more than 80 percent of the vote counted.

McCain had 33 percent of the voted, compared to 30 percent for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and 16 percent for former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was fourth with 15 percent of the vote, followed by Texas Rep. Ron Paul with 4 percent and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani with 2 percent.

Voting was affected by rain and snow in parts of the sate, and CNN reported that voting machines failed in all of the nearly 100 precincts in Horry County, which contains Myrtle Beach. Poll workers handed out paper ballots instead -- and at least one precinct ran out of the back-up ballots.

Meanwhile, Republican hopefuls John McCain and Mitt Romney came under attack for comments about the Confederate flag.

Ads paid for by Americans for the Preservation of American Culture, a group with headquarters in Atlanta, attacked McCain and Romney while endorsing Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Saturday.

McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona, and Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, have called the emblem divisive. Huckabee, the group's ads claim, has said flying the Confederate emblem is South Carolina's business alone, reported the Journal-Constitution.

"Gov. Huckabee understands that all the average guy with a Confederate flag on his pick-up truck is saying is, he's proud to be a Southerner," said one of the ads.

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