In the mists of the new election year once again we’re witnessing the parade of politicians visiting each estate, at this point, each candidate is pursuing their party’s nomination. But what does that mean? That means the South Carolina Presidential primaries are happening this month, so what do you need to know about them?

For the average American, or the one uninterested in politics at least, the primary process can appear convoluted, unnecessarily complicated, or simply nonsensical, and how can we blame them? The rules can change each year and vary according to the party or on a state-to-state basis. So, what’s the point of it? And how do they work?

A presidential primary election is an election held within a political party months before the party convention. Primaries work like traditional elections; the primary voters will cast their respective ballots on ballot boxes and then be counted to see who has won. Political parties at the state level will use the results of the primary to assign state delegates to the national party convention.

The primaries have two main goals then, the most evident one is to measure the will of the people so that at the national convention the party nominee will be one that the citizens chose, the second, and most influential one, is that the primaries allow for a narrowing down of the candidates running for each party. During this first half of the year and as the primaries advance in each state, we will see candidates dropping out of the presidential race, way before the national conventions.

For South Carolina’s presidential primary, you can pick either the Democratic Presidential Primary or the Republican Presidential Primary, but you can only vote in one of them. To participate you had to register with the South Carolina Election Commission before January’s deadline, but it is not necessary to be a registered member of any of the parties. For those of you who have registered, remember that you can only participate in the county you registered, if you have moved recently or changed your name, update your information before election day.

Quick Facts:

• The Democratic Presidential Primary is on Saturday, February 3.
• The Republican Presidential Primary is on Saturday, February 24.
• You can check your registration by visiting South Carolina’s Election Commission website, as well as getting a sample ballot to check who are going to be the candidates and help ensure a smoother voting process.
• Make sure to have at hand one of the following Photo IDs: SC Driver’s License, SC DMV ID Card, SC Voter Registration Card with Photos, Federal Military ID, or US Passport. Polling places will be open 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
• Every vote counts! Results will start updating after 7:00 p.m. on Election night for each of the primaries. You can check the unofficial results at scVOTES.gov.
• The official results will be confirmed by the election officials after it has been determined that all votes have been counted accurately and completely, the results should be certified on the Thursday following election day.

After the state nominees are selected, the parties’ conventions will come in the summer, the nominee will be formally selected, and the last question will be: Who will win the general election?