It's Election Day in South Carolina.
Polls are open across the state for the first-in-the-South Republican presidential primary — a race largely between former President Donald Trump and a homegrown challenger, former state Gov. Nikki Haley.
The two barnstormed through South Carolina Friday in a last-day effort to energize voters to turn out Saturday.
Haley ended Friday at a campaign rally at Patriots Point in Mt. Pleasant. Meanwhile, Trump spoke at a rally in Rock Hill Friday before speaking to Black conservatives at a dinner in Columbia.
Trump has consistently held a large lead in polling.
Setting expectations, Haley's campaign manager Betsy Ankey said Friday they know the race is an "uphill battle," but "this has never just been about who can win a Republican primary."
Haley said this week she will not exit the race after Saturday, vowing to compete in Super Tuesday states. On Friday, her campaign announced a seven-figure national cable and digital ad buy for the Super Tuesday stretch.
More than 205,000 early voters have already cast ballots in the primary, according to the State Election Commission. The top two counties with the highest early voter turnout were Horry County with 25,352 early voters and Greenville County with 23,711 — two areas of the state with a large swath of GOP voters.
The state has a total of about 3.1 million registered voters.
South Carolina does not have party registration.
So that means any voter who did not cast a ballot in the Feb. 3 Democratic presidential primary — only 131,472, or about 4%, voted in the contest — can vote in Saturday's GOP primary.
Polls close at 7 p.m.
To find your correct polling location, go to scVOTES.gov.
The ballot will include seven names, including candidates who've dropped out but were certified to be on the ballot. The State Election Commission will have signs posted to indicate which candidates have dropped out.
They are:
- Ryan Binkley
- Chris Christie (suspended campaign)
- Ron DeSantis (suspended campaign)
- Nikki Haley
- Vivek Ramaswamy (suspended campaign)
- David Stuckenberg
- Donald Trump
Three advisory questions also will be on the ballot that voters can check yes or no:
- Should South Carolina law be changed to give people the right to register to vote with the political party of their choice?
- Should South Carolina adopt reforms to increase the independence and accountability of our judiciary by improving transparency and reducing conflicts of interest in the process of reviewing judicial qualifications and electing judges.
- Should it be an immediate legislative priority to protect South Carolina’s competitiveness and small businesses by changing state law so that a person’s responsibility for financial damages in a lawsuit is based on that person's actual share of responsibility?
For results coverage, South Carolina ETV and SC Public Radio will air comprehensive live coverage from 7 to 9 p.m. across its statewide television and radio network.
Viewers can watch the broadcast on ETV-HD, listen on SC Public Radio or stream on scetv.org.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
