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The South Carolina Democratic Primary is the last major primary or caucus before Super Tuesday. Because today’s vote is a primary and not a caucus, we’ll likely get results a lot sooner this time around. Here’s a look at the time it starts and ends and how long it lasts today on Saturday, February 29, 2020.
Polls Opened at 7 AM Eastern & Close at 7 PM Eastern
The polls today opened at 7 a.m. Eastern. They will close at 7 p.m. Eastern. As long as you’re in line by 7 p.m., you’ll be able to vote today.
All registered voters can take part in today’s primary. You can see a sample ballot here. You can find your precinct for voting today here.
If you have an absentee vote, you can check the status here. If you have a provisional ballot, you can check the status here.
We Could Start Hearing Some Results as Early as 8 PM Eastern
Results are typically known within an hour of the polls closing, which means we could know the results of the Democratic primary as early as 8 p.m. Eastern in some locations today. Precincts that have a long line of people at the 7 p.m. cutoff may take longer for results to be known, depending on how long it takes for all the people in line to vote.
We’ll likely have a general idea of who won the Democratic primary as early as 10 p.m. Eastern or sooner, depending on how things proceed.
About the Democratic Primary
The candidates on the New Hampshire ballot for the Democratic primary will include a number who have already dropped out. According to The Green Papers, the list on the ballot includes:
- Michael Bennet
- Joe Biden
- Pete Buttigieg
- Tulsi Gabbard
- Amy Klobuchar
- Deval Patrick
- Bernie Sanders
- Tom Steyer
- Elizabeth Warren
- Andrew Yang
Yang, Bennet, and Patrick have dropped out but it appears they will still be on the ballot.
Candidates are only viable (and can only be allocated delegates) if they earn more than 15 percent of the vote. Delegates will be awarded proportionally. This is not a winner-takes-all state.
About the Democratic Delegates
South Carolina has 63 delegates that attend the Democratic National Convention and are pledged based on the voting results. A candidate must meet at 15 percent threshold in order to get delegates, according to The Green Papers.
The delegates include 35 district delegates awarded proportionally based on primary results in the seven congressional districts and 19 delegates based on statewide primary votes (12 at-large and seven pledged PLEOs). The state also has nine unpledged PLEOs, who are essentially superdelegates. These include seven DNC members and two members of Congress (two Representatives).
After this, the precinct reorganization meeting is March 14, followed by County Democratic Conventions from March 14 through March 31, and then the state convention on May 30.
The Democratic National Convention will take place July 13-16. According to Ballotpedia, there will be 4,750 delegates total, including 3,979 pledged and 771 automatic (more commonly known as superdelegates.) In order to not have a contested convention, a candidate needs 1,991 pledged delegates on the first ballot. (Superdelegates aren’t allowed to vote on the first ballot.) If no candidate gets this majority of pledged delegates, then a second ballot (or more) will take place and both pledged and automatic delegates can vote this time. From then on, a candidate needs the majority of all delegates to win, which is more than 2,375 votes.