Was there “a Bernie effect”?

Bernie Sanders’s 24% of the Oconee vote was a surprise to Chairman Steve Sperry of the Oconee Democratic Party. He had thought Sanders would have taken 20%. Tracking Saturday’s results, Sperry kept an eye on the results from a pair of county precincts where it was suspected Republicans would have cast ballots for Sanders, not because they want him to be President but because they deem him as a candidate that President Trump can beat in November. But Sperry’s conclusion was that there wasn’t as much of a “Bernie effect” as someone had speculated. He thinks the near double the number of voters Saturday compared with the 2016 primary was bolstered in part by what he called votes from moderate Republicans.