by The first four races for the Republican nomination will soon come to an end with the South Carolina primary, following the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries last month and the Nevada primaries and caucuses this month.
This is what you should know.
When is the South Carolina Republican primary?
Saturday February 24.
Who can participate?
South Carolina does not have a formal party registry, so registered voters can participate in the primary regardless of whether they identify as Republican, Democrat, or Independent.
However, if you voted in this month’s Democratic primary, you will not be able to vote in the Republican primary as well.
How can I vote?
Polls will be open on Election Day from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (you can find your polling location here.) You can also vote early from now through February 22, except February 18 and 19, but your early voting location may be different from your Election Day voting location, so be sure to Check here.
Either way, you will need to show photo identification.
Some South Carolinians can cast absentee ballots by mail. You can find out if you are eligible for that. here.
Unfortunately, if you are not already registered to vote, it is too late to do so in this primary; The deadline was last month. But you can find the information you need here register in time for the June non-presidential primaries (when congressional, state and local legislative elections will be on the ballot) and the November general election.
Who will be on the ballot?
Seven candidates will be listed:
The two main contenders, former President Donald J. Trump and Nikki Haley.
Two little-known candidates, Ryan Binkley and David Stuckenberg
Three former candidates, Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy, who suspended their campaigns after the ballots were set.
The vote will also include three questions on political issues, but those results are not binding; They are intended for the state Republican Party to gauge voter sentiment.
What are we watching for in South Carolina?
South Carolina could be the last stand for Haley’s campaign.
It’s her home state, and voters there elected her governor twice, so it appears to give her a chance to compete closely with Trump, but polls place it far behind. He has said that he doesn’t think he has to win South Carolina to remain viable, but that he needs to do better than New Hampshire (43 percent), which in turn was better than Iowa (19 percent). .
If she tops the polls, the momentum could carry her into the 16 Super Tuesday elections, where she would need to accumulate many delegates to be competitive. (We’re tracking the delegate count here.) If she doesn’t, her path looks pretty bleak.
What happens next?
After South Carolina, the race will head to Michigan, which will hold its bipartisan primaries on Feb. 27 because Democrats moved the state forward in their nominating process.
But because the Republican National Committee did not authorize that change, it will award only a fraction of Michigan’s delegates to the party’s national convention based on those primary results. The rest of the state’s delegates will be determined later, in assemblies led by party members.
After February 27, the state-by-state campaign weeks will end as the race advances to Super Tuesday on March 5.
