February 23, 2024
A major contest that usually predicts who will ultimately become the presidential nominee for the Republican party is happening tomorrow.
And there’s a lot for you to know about what’s about to go down in South Carolina.
First – polls will open Saturday morning for South Carolina’s republican primary election and they close at 7 pm eastern. But the state opened early voting about a week and a half ago and qualified voters can also vote absentee. South Carolina has what’s called an open primary – which means any person in the state who has registered to vote may vote for whichever candidate he or she wants. So yes – if a democrat or independent in South Carolina wants to vote in the Republican primary – that is absolutely allowed. But!!!! If a registered voter in South Carolina already participated in the Democrat primary back in early February, that voter cannot participate again in the Republican primary tomorrow. That voter can only vote once.
So who is going to be voting?
Well – this is where things get interesting. South Carolina is a red state – reliably voting Republican during every presidential election since the 1970s. But that doesn’t mean Democrats and Independents don’t live there too. They do. But we don’t really know the specific numbers because voters are not required to select a party affiliation when they register to vote.
The Secretary of State says only about 4% of registered voters cast ballots in the Democrat primary in early February – so that leaves almost all of the electorate including any remaining Democrats and Independents and Republicans eligible to vote tomorrow in the Republican contest. Expect a large turnout.
According to the South Carolina Secretary of State there are currently more than 3.2 million registered voters in the state (3,240,677). And only 132,057 of them voted in the Democrat primary earlier this month. Does that mean there are only 132,000 Democrats or Independents. No. There could be more who just want to participate in the republican primary. Does that make sense?
Now here’s what really matters when it comes to who will be the Republican party nominee for president. The delegates. In order to win the nomination of your party for President of the United States, a candidate has to collect enough delegates. And it’s the voters who vote for those delegates. In South Carolina – Republican delegates work a little differently than they do in other states. There are a total of 50 delegates up for grabs. 29 of those will be awarded to whoever wins the Republican primary election. The remaining 21 delegates will be allocated according to the vote of each of the state’s seven congressional districts. There are three delegates per district. So the candidate who wins each of those districts gets three delegates. So for example – if former President Trump wins the Republican primary election – he will automatically win 29 delegates and his only remaining major rival Nikki Haley will win zero delegates. Then for every district Trump wins, he will also win three more delegates. But if Nikki Haley wins a district she will win three delegates if she wins two districts she’ll win a total of six delegates.
The other important thing to keep in mind is – Nikki Haley was the governor of the state of South Carolina for two terms. And back then she was really popular. The only reason why she left was because Trump – who was president at the time – asked her to be the UN ambassador in his administration. But while she was popular back then – the political dynamic in South Carolina has changed. And polling is showing that –now–former president trump is way more popular than she is and more likely to win.
But you never know what’s going to happen in an election.
Read more from the Secretary of State here.
