First Polls across South Carolina opened for the 2012

First Polls across South Carolina opened for the 2012

At 7 a.m. Saturday Polls across South Carolina opened for the 2012 'First in the South' Republican Presidential Primary.

An overcast primary day has seen rain sweep across the state and a tornado warning has been issued for parts of the Midlands until 8 p.m., an hour after the polls close. It remains to be seen what impact the weather may have on voter turnout.

Ever since 1980, when Ronald Reagan won the first South Carolina Republican primary, every GOP candidate who has won in this Southern state of fewer than 5 million people has gone on to win the Republican presidential nomination. State party officials are fond of saying the road to the White House passes straight through South Carolina.

South Carolina is a different battleground from the corn fields of Iowa and predominantly white New Hampshire. The state is poorer, more conservative and has a population that is 28 percent black.

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