COLUMBIA, SC — With a few hours to go until the polls close on this rainy Primary Day in South Carolina, state Republicans are sticking by their prediction that 450,000 voters will turnout today.
Around 445,000 South Carolinians cast ballots in the 2008 GOP primary. The record was set in 2000 when about 573,000 voted.
“We are hopeful of hitting 450,000,” state GOP Executive Director Matt Moore told me around 2:45 PM Saturday. “Regardless, winning South Carolina is as important as ever. It could be a photo finish.”
State Republicans acknowledge that the weather — rainy, with a chance of tornadoes some places — could affect things turnout-wise. But the tight nature of the polls may drive people to brave the raindrops anyway. At one Columbia polling place, Dreher High School, pollwatchers reported 314 votes at around 1:30 which they said was higher than usual.
I asked former Michele Bachmann South Carolina coordinator (and member of Mitt Romney’s 2008 team) Wesley Donahue if he thought the total will climb to 450,000, as state GOP chair Chad Connelly has been predicting for more than a week now.
“Probably,” Donahue said.
