Early Voting in GOP Presidential Primary Opens Monday

Observer Reports

Early voting starts Monday for South Carolina’s Republican Presidential Primary, with a ballot that includes former President Donald Trump and former S.C. Governor Nikki Haley. Three questions from the state Republican Party are also on the ballot. Early voting will be in place until the Feb. 24 primary.

The ballot includes seven candidates, but three are no longer running for president – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie had all dropped out of the race.

The three questions on the ballot are:

1. Should South Carolina law be changed to give people the right to register to vote with the political party of their choice?

2. 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?

3. 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?

Current law gives any of the state’s 3 million voters who did not vote in the Feb. 3 Democratic Presidential Preference Primary Feb. 3 to vote In the GOP primary. Roughly four percent of South Carolina’s 3.2 million registered voters voted in the Democratic primary.