To find out exactly who was in the audience, you have to go to a local TV station in Greenville. The debate audience for the Greenville, SC debate was the product of decisions by CBS and the South Carolina Republican Party. So what do you expect? WYFF TV in Greenville reports:

Thousands of people are trying to go to the GOP presidential debate at the Peace Center in Greenville.

It would take a venue that is 11 times the size of the Peace Center to hold everyone who tried to get a ticket through the lottery system.

So what did the South Carolina GOP do? Hold a lottery? Are you kidding? This is South Carolina where the GOPe runs things and they play hardball, y’all:

GOP leaders said the Peace Center wasn't large enough, so the South Carolina Republican Party decided not to go with a lottery system.

And CBS gets blamed:

"If we had not had it at the Peace Center we probably would have had more people come, but the Peace Center is the venue that CBS chose,” said Chad Groover, chairman of the Greenville County Republican party.

So you see, they had no choice:

Groover said supporters who work hard for the party will be rewarded tickets.

“Work hard” also can mean "donating money."

Groover said the Republican National Committee gives a lot of tickets to supporters. He said more are then allocated for the state party to distribute among the county chairs.

"I didn't have hundreds of tickets. I had a couple of dozen tickets,” said Groover.

Groover said he gave tickets to supporters, including elected officials, who work hard for the party.

"You'll have a good mix of people who are donors, people who are donors and workers, and people who are just workers,” said Groover.

Hat tip: Clarice Feldman