The crowd was way down from expectations, but nearly every voting-age person had a hand up when asked who was registered to vote at an anti-poker event in Elgin Saturday night.

Some 75 people turned out for the first Midlands-area rally held since the video poker debate began heating up this summer.

The program was sponsored by the Elgin Ministerial Association. Several hundred participants had been expected, but instead, one room of chairs in the Blaney Elementary School cafeteria was closed off to bring the smaller crowd closer together.

“It’s not what we expected but given the number of competing events, I’m pleased with the turnout,” said the Rev. Steve Reed, ministerial association president and pastor of Union Baptist Church in Elgin.

The group had picked the date to coincide with the Anti-Gambling emphasis that will be observed in Southern Baptist churches nationwide today.

What organizers hadn’t counted on, however, was the University of South Carolina’s first home football game as well as several community events.

Reed said he couldn’t complain about the commitment of those in attendance.

“I’d say 90 percent of folks here are registered to vote,” Reed said. His estimate was confirmed when participants were asked if they had registered. And later, when asked how they would vote, a collective “No” was shouted across the room.

Kershaw County Sheriff Steve McCaskill, who is also a deacon at Blaney Baptist Church, urged the audience to head to the polls Nov. 2 and to find out if their neighbors were heading in that direction, too.

“The only way we are going to do anything about it is by coming together like you have here tonight,” McCaskill said. “You are what they’re scared the most of. You’re the good honest people of South Carolina.”

McCaskill spoke in reference to the pro-gambling forces that have pledged to turn out enough voters on Nov. 2 to keep their industry alive. Voters across the state will determine the industry’s fate in a single-issue referendum scheduled for that date. Church-goers of all denominations are rallying in unprecedented numbers to tip the scales toward a no vote.

“The citizens of South Carolina are going to have to say no,” McCaskill said. “If you don’t get out and vote that day, we will lose.”

Allison Askins can be reached by phone at (803) 771-8614 or by e-mail at aaskins@thestate.com