Why did none of the networks give Trump South Carolina on the poll closing?

[super6646]

In fact, they haven't done so for any republican since 2000. I mean SC voted overwhelmingly for Trump (54-40), yet it wasn't projected until some results came in (with Clinton leading the tally at the time). I've noticed this in the 2012 and 2008 elections, in which the networks usually project the state around the same time. So this is just something I noticed, and why exactly does this occur?

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Early exit polls had SC significantly closer than it wound up being (and GA a tie)

[Adam Griffin]

Pretty much any state that has a history of being less than 10 (and maybe as much as 15) points in favor of the party that seemingly isn't doing well based on exit polls is going to be slapped with the "too early to call" label, at least for a short while. Remember that most preliminary exit poll data was suggesting a relative Clinton rout (as were the actual results in key states until about 8:30-9:00 PM).

Even with respect to the party that is apparently winning the election, the last time any number of relatively-close/swing states were called as soon as the polls closed was 2008 (MI, IA, NH, MN, WI).

For the record, SC was called at 7:35 ET in 2012, 7:48 ET in 2008 & 7:50 ET in 2016. Not a huge difference in any of those three elections in terms of when the call was made. The fact that almost all of the urban/suburban areas swung Clinton modestly may have played a role in the call taking a bit longer, along with pretty substantial shifts across multiple demographics in both turnout and support making it more difficult to base their calls off of the previously-reliable 2008/12 baselines.

[60+ GOP Seats After 2018 GUARANTEED]

Yeah, S.C. hasn't been called at poll closing time for a while.

North Carolina in 2004 was called before South Carolina.

The reason is because exit polls show it closer than it always is and they're slow to count their votes. Networks called it around the same time for Romney in 2012.