CBS Exit Poll: Voters Down on Country's Direction; Say Trump Fit for Office

Republican voters in South Carolina Saturday said during exit polls conducted by CBS News that they are not happy with the direction in which the country is headed and that they do not agree with former state Gov. Nikki Haley's contentions about former President Donald Trump's mental and physical fitness for office. 

Voters overwhelmingly, 72%, said Trump has both the mental and physical health to serve as president, while 60% said Haley meets those criteria, reported CBS News, about an hour before the polls were to close at 7 p.m. EST. 

In other measures, GOP primary voters said they are dissatisfied with how the country is going overall, with almost 9 out of 10 saying they are dissatisfied. Out of those, nearly half said they are angry about the direction the country is headed. 

Further, 8 in 10 of the voters quizzed leaving the polls said the economy is either poor or not so good. 

The polls also revealed that South Carolina's GOP primary voters are more conservative, more closely reflecting the results of the Iowa GOP caucuses than the Republican primary in New Hampshire. 

Saturday's exit polls also revealed that South Carolina's electorate is more conservative now than in 2016, when Trump took the state's primary. 

In this exit poll, more than 4 of 10 GOP primary voters said they are "very conservative," compared to 38% in the 2016 primary, when the response "somewhat conservative" came out higher. 

Meanwhile, about half of South Carolina GOP voters identify as "MAGA," or supporting Trump, which was in line with the caucusgoers in Iowa but higher than in New Hampshire.

In other numbers: 

• 6 in 10 said they are white evangelicals, almost three times as many as in New Hampshire and slightly higher than in Iowa.
• A quarter of voters call themselves independents, much lower than in New Hampshire, where 44% identified as independent. 
• About 4% of Saturday's voters identified themselves as Democrats. 
• More than 9 in 10 voters were white, as is often seen in GOP primary electorates.. 

Heading into Saturday's primary in South Carolina, Trump had secured an estimated 63 delegates, compared to 17 for Haley. In South Carolina, 50 delegates are allocated, and the winner of the primary will take all 29 of the designated state delegates. 

Another 21 delegates are allocated in the state's congressional districts, with three in each of the seven districts, and the winner in each district gets that district's three delegates. 

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