In the Democratic field, South Carolina’s February 27 primary will follow the party’s Nevada caucuses on Saturday.
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In the Democratic camp, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton has 394 delegates against Bernie Sanders’s 44.
SC is also known for some political “dirty tricks” in past primaries.
The latest polls show Donald Trump with a 16 point lead in SC and it seems his feud with the Bush’s has not hurt his poll numbers. The number of Democratic primaries jumped to 23 in 1972, 28 in 1976 and 31 in 1980; the Republican Party, which adopted similar reforms a bit later, held 28 primaries in 1976 and 36 in 1980.
“If you vote in either the Democrat or Republican primary, it has nothing to do with June or November”.
No. While voters can vote in either party’s primary, they can only vote in one.
Can I vote in both primaries?
One important outcome of the post-1968 reforms is that almost all convention delegates now are pledged to vote in accordance with the results of the primaries or caucuses that elected them (at least on the first ballot).
Even though the state – and taxpayers – will pay for both primaries, they are organized separately by the two parties, which set the dates. On that “Super Tuesday”, Democrats held contests in 23 states and territories, Republicans in 20.
According to exit polls in 2008, Mike Huckabee actually won among registered Republicans in SC but John McCain ended up taking the state as Democrats, Independents and other non-affiliated voters cast their ballots for McCain in the Republican primary, a practice known as “party crashing”.
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What exactly are we voting for? SC had a head start. In five of the last six elections the victor of the SC primary went on to win the GOP nomination.
