Continuing what I was talking about yesterday, South Carolina is one of the 4 “carve-out” states whose early position has somehow been assured. Unlike the other, proportional, three earlies, the Republican Party is allocating delegates along a mixed winner-taker-all scenario. 29 delegates are awarded outright to the winner of the statewide race while 21 are equally divided among 7 congressional districts. If a candidate finishes with a plurality of votes in a single district, he gets all 3 of their delegates.

What this means is that Donald Trump, with less than a third of the vote, can win 100% of the delegates.

In Nevada, it’s a collection of Democratic Non-binding Precinct Viability Caucuses. Seriously. These are followed by 17 county conventions in April, and a state convention in mid-May, at which point, someone will get some delegates. Turnout is notoriously low, as might be expected if you are electing delegates to a meeting which will elect delegates to a meeting which will elect delegates to a meeting where they and other delegates will select a nominee for President. Iowa votes somewhat along the same line: both have the 15% viability rule, for example. But unlike Iowa, you can’t poach from other groups, and it’s not the first contest in the country where candidates have been camped out for a year.   So, yawn?

For the purposes of our game this week, we’re going to keep it simple.

GOP-SC – Predict order and vote percentages of the top 5 finishers.

DEM-NV – Predict the order and percentages of the top 2 finishers.

Tie-breaker – Predict who –if anyone – other than the winner will win any delegates in SC.

~Primo