It's snowing all across the state in South Carolina today as Republican voters go to the polls and choose the man they wish to be the nominee of the party.

Polls are open 7-7 EDT and most of the last polling done shows a tight race between John McCain and Mike Huckabee:

The last round of polls showed McCain (Ariz.), with support from South Carolina's large veteran population, holding a narrow lead in the state that handed him the most painful defeat of his 2000 campaign.

Huckabee is counting on strong turnout from a large bloc of Christian conservatives to help him overtake the senator in the first Southern primary of the year.

Former senator Fred D. Thompson (Tenn.) and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney were in a race for third. Thompson badly needs a strong showing to keep his White House bid viable. Romney, who won the Michigan primary Tuesday, spent Friday in Nevada, where he is looking to win Saturday's GOP caucuses.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) called the primary a genuine contest and said the substantial number of undecided voters reflects uncertainty and introspection among Republicans, who are still absorbing the losses of the 2006 midterm elections and are deeply disaffected about Washington