Democratic Presidential Candidates Forum On MSNBC: How To Win Tickets To South Carolina Event Moderated By Rachel Maddow

When the South Carolina Democratic Party announced last month it would hold a “First in the South” Democratic candidates forum Nov. 6, tickets to the event sold out quickly, frustrating some residents who had hoped to snag an in-person peek at the candidates. But ahead of the event, which will take place Friday at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, MSNBC is giving a few people another chance to win tickets through a social media contest.

The forum will offer a different format from the presidential debates because it is not officially sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee, which has agreed to allow only six debates in the 2016 cycle. MSNBC host Rachel Maddow will interview former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, but the candidates will be on stage at separate times and won't interact with each other, according to rules set by the DNC.

Maddow has said she that hopes to get the candidates talking about topics other than their traditional stump speeches, and that, given their location, she will ask about the future of the Democratic Party in the South. South Carolina holds the first primary vote in the South, on March 15.

With some Democrats calling for the party’s national committee to schedule more debates, people are likely to be excited by this additional opportunity to hear from the candidates. MSNBC will give away 10 tickets to the forum in a “Snapchat Challenge” using the photo-messaging app Friday morning.

To enter the contest, individuals should follow MSNBC’s Snapchat handle, SHIFTMSNBC, according to the rules on MSNBC’s website. The contest will begin Friday at 10 a.m. EST and will include clues that will take participants to various locations around the Winthrop University campus. Once you have solved each clue, take a Snap and save the photos to your Snap story so MSNBC staff can see your work at the end of the game.

The final clue will come at 3 p.m. EST, and MSNBC will announce the location users will need to finish their hunt by 4 p.m. EST. Once participants complete the challenge, they will meet with “Snapchat Challenge” staff at the auditorium where the forum will take place. Each winner will receive two tickets to the forum, which starts at 8 p.m. EST.

The forum will air live on MSNBC at 8 p.m. EST. As Clinton has been pulling farther ahead in recent polls and Sanders has been heating up his rhetoric, the forum could get interesting even without the face-to-face element of a debate.