Busy day today for South Carolina which is holding their Democratic and Republican primaries and across the country in Nevada they are holding their caucuses today.
[UPDATE HCdL 2:5opm CST]
I'm going to interject my own little update here instead of below so that I don't interrupt the flow of things Spree has going already in her coverage of South Carolina and Nevada. Good news for Fred Heads; Fred is staying in for Florida regardless of his showing in South Carolina. I'm particularly glad to hear that as early voting has already started in Tennessee and I've made no secret of my support for Thompson.
Thompson plans to go on to Florida
By Joseph Williams, Globe Staff
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Fred Thompson, trailing Mike Huckabee and John McCain in the polls, will continue his presidential bid even if he finishes third in today's South Carolina primary, his campaign said.
Thompson, who had talked of South Carolina as his last stand, appeared this afternoon at a gun show in a suburban Shriners' auditorium -- a natural fit given his strong support of the Second Amendment right to own firearms. Several patrons wore "Fred '08" stickers on their clothing; as Thompson swept into the packed hall he was greeted by a modest round of applause.
HOOwah!
We now return you to your regularly scheduled Spree...
HCdL
Starting with South Carolina I see there is already some problems at some polling locations which has people being turned away.
There will be analysis of the GOP South Carolina results at The Phoenix.com tonight.
Reports of bad weather in SC might prevent many from turning out according to The State, SC leading newspaper and there is a Winter Weather Advisory for Saturday in the Midlands, including Sumter, Richland and Lexington counties. In the Upstate, Snow Advisories are in effect Saturday.
I am not bothering with the poll predictions because as we saw in NH, those are more trouble than they are worth and nothing more than guesses, sometimes correct sometimes, not so much.
Polls opened Saturday at 7:00 a.m. and are open until 7:00 p.m. For more information on where to vote, visit SCVotes.org.
[Update for SC] -United Press International is reporting that as the polls open Romney and McCain are under attack for their "flag comments".
South Carolina Democrats hold their primary next Saturday.
A little piece of trivia: Since 1980, no Republican has gone to the White House without winning the South Carolina State's primary.
If you’re watching closely you can see Nevada Caucuses and South Carolina Primary Results
Nevada Republican Caucuses Live Results
Nevada Democratic Caucuses Live Results
South Carolina Republican Primary Live Results
NEVADA:
Irregular Times explains how the Nevada Caucuses work:
Doors close and the Nevada Republican Caucuses begin at 9:10 AM local time (12:10 PM Eastern). Doors close for the Democratic Nevada Caucuses to begin at 11:30 AM local time (2:30 PM Eastern).
The system for caucusing is the same for the parties as in Iowa — for Democrats, if people show up to support candidates who have fewer than 15 percent support in a caucus group, they either have to go home or join another candidate’s caucus group. For Republicans, people show up and simply vote by secret ballot. The reporting discrepancies are also the same. While the Democrats in Nevada will be using a spiffy automatic touch-tone phone reporting system (With Democratic results tallying automatically here), the Republicans will be using pen and paper and then phoning in results (See Republican results here).
Here is another, more detailed explanation of how everything will work in Nevada.
The Ron Paul campaign is already whining and wanting the caucus to be postponed....good luck with that dude.
Sister Toldjah is one of the bloggers that will be giving all day updates and live blogging the Nevada Caucuses and the South Carolina Primaries.
Don't forget to read up on the fuss earlier this week where the Nevada State Education Association tried to have the Strip Caucuses, which would give those working today a chance to have their votes counted, shut down and lost that battle in court.
The results should be in early for Nevada: 1 p.m. for the Republicans and 2 p.m. for the Democrats.
(Side Note-- Dennis Kucinich files another complaint, this time with the FCC, read about it.)
(Update for Nevada) ABC, based on entrance polls, are predicting a Romney win in Nevada for the GOP.
Wapo, Fox and NBC are also calling Romney the winner in Nevada for the GOP, nothing on the Dems yet.
[Update] The Politico reports that Bill Clinton is claiming to have witnessed voter suppression in Nevada.
Today when my daughter and I were wandering through the hotel, and all these culinary workers were mobbing us telling us they didn’t care what the union told them to do, they were gonna caucus for Hillary.
There was a representative of the organization following along behind us going up to everybody who said that, saying 'if you’re not gonna vote for our guy were gonna give you a schedule tomorrow so you can’t be there.' So, is this the new politics? I haven’t seen anything like that in America in 35 years. So I will say it again – they think they're better than you.
[Update- Nevada] The Trail reports that Obama is rallying the casino workers.
[Update- Nevada] The Las Vegas Sun reports of confusion at the Democratic caucus sites and head quarters phones are ringing off the hook.
Information packets needed to run some caucuses didn't get picked up and head quarters had to deliver late last night and at one site, Clinton supporters put Clinton campaign signs one very chair,people complained about being intimidated and workers had to make them remove them, sites are running out of presidential preference cards and voter registration forms. At one site in Reno the fire marshal came after more than 200 people arrived at a community center with a capacity of 85, the volunteer said.
[UPDATE] Early results show Obama in the lead in Nevada. This is just from a few counties reporting.
Senator Barack Obama: 49.3%
Senator Hillary Clinton: 46.48%
Senator John Edwards: 2.82%
Congressman Dennis Kucinich: 1.41%
Senator Mike Gravel: 0%
Uncommitted: 0%
*As of 12:06 PM Pacific Time
[Update] Now Clinton is in the lead with 35% of counties reporting, by 5 points.
Senator Hillary Clinton: 49.21%
Senator Barack Obama: 44.82%
Senator John Edwards: 5.37%
Uncommitted: 0.39%
Congressman Dennis Kucinich: 0.2%
Senator Mike Gravel: 0%
*As of 12:36 PM Pacific Time
I will bring more results as they come in.
Projections are giving Nevada to Hillary.
[UPDATE 8:20pm CST HCdL]
FOXNews predicts John McCain with 83% of precincts reporting in.
McCain 33%
Huckabee 29%
Thompson 16%
Romney 15%
Paul 4%
Giuliani 2%
Hunter 886 votes
Duncan Hunter has announced that he will be withdrawing from the campaign.
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