Weather advisories were in effect for much of the state.

The primary vote brings an end to months of Republican stump speeches, television ads and campaign phone calls for residents here. Presidential politics aren't over, though. The Democratic primary is next Saturday and we'll have live coverage on WSOC-TV and WSOCTV.com.

Some voters said the lack of a clear front-runner in the Republican race made it difficult to make up their minds.

Weather, voting machine issues dog SC

As many as 90 percent of the electronic voting machines in one coastal South Carolina county did not work when polls opened in Saturday's Republican primary. Officials also worried that snow forecast for the northern part of the state could impact voter turnout.

Horry County spokeswoman Lisa Bourcier says 80 percent of the roughly 400 machines that failed to function were up and running by noon and technicians were working on the rest. She says officials had heard reports of voters being turned away because of machine failures, but had no idea how many.

Polls were open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Polling officials in some parts of the state said they believed turnout was heavy early because of forecasts for snow later in the day.