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Primary election

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A primary election is an election in which voters in a jurisdiction select candidates for a subsequent election (nominating primary). In other words, primary elections are generally when each political party decides its nominee for the upcoming general election. Primaries are common in the United States, but are generally rare elsewhere in the world. Primary elections are generally traced to the U.S. progressive movement.

Types of Primaries

Closed. Voters may vote in a party's primary only if they are registered members of that party. Independents cannot participate.

Semi-closed. Like in closed primaries, registered Republicans and Democrats can vote only in their own party's primary. However, semi-closed systems allow unaffiliated voters to participate as well. Depending on the state, independents either make their choice of party primary privately, inside the voting booth, or publicly, by registering with either the Republican or Democratic Party on Election Day.

Open. A registered voter may vote in any party primary regardless of his or her own party affiliation. When voters do not pre-register with a party before the primary, it is called a pick-a-party primary because the voter can select which party's primary he wishes to vote in on election day.

Because of the open nature of this system, a practice known as "raiding" may occur. "Raiding" consists of voters of one party crossing over and voting in the primary of another party. The purpose is usually to vote for the weakest candidate of the opposing party in order to give their own party the advantage in the general election if that weak candidate were to win the nomination.

Semi-open. All voters may vote in any single primary, but must publicly declare which primary they will vote in before entering the voting booth. Typically this declaration is accomplished by requesting a ballot. In many states with semi-open primaries, election officials record each voter's choice of party and provide the parties access to the information.

Blanket. No longer in use, except in Louisiana, where a modified version is used. This system allowed voters to vote for one candidate per office, regardless of which party they were a member of.

Run-off. A primary in which the ballot is not restricted to one party and the top two candidates advance to the general election regardless of party affiliation.

Some states have mixed systems. In West Virginia, Republican primaries are open to independents, while Democratic primaries were closed. However, as of April 1, 2007, West Virginia's Democratic Party opened its voting to allow "individuals who are not affiliated with any existing recognized party to participate in the election process" [1].

Other ways that parties may select candidates include caucuses and conventions. Historically, Canadian political parties chose their leaders through leadership conventions, although some parties have abandoned this practice in favour of one member, one vote systems.

American Primaries

Primary Challenges

A primary challenge occurs in U.S. politics when an incumbent elected official is challenged in an upcoming primary election by a member of his own political party. Primary challenges generate an excitement in primary elections that is typically absent.

Open vs. Closed Partisan Primaries

The open primary provides a voting environment void of public partisanship declarations. On the day of the election, each individual is allowed to choose the party primary in which he would like to participate. Strong party affiliations are not favored. Thus, the parties and candidates are not able to focus their campaign funds entirely on partisans; instead, they must canvas the entire electorate.

The closed primary is often favored by the parties for a number of reasons. First, voters must register with a party in advance of the election. This is favorable for the party because it generates a list of loyal partisans. The chief criticism of the closed primary is that voters must openly declare partisanship. Consequently, not everyone is involved in the choice of candidates for the general election.

Non-Partisan Primaries

Primaries can also be used in partisan elections to reduce the set of candidates that go on to the general election (qualifying primary). (In the U.S. many city, county and school board elections are non-partisan.) Generally twice as many candidates pass the primary as can win in the general election, so a single seat election primary would allow the top two primary candidates to participate in the general election following.

When a qualifying primary is applied to a partisan election, it becomes what is generally known as a Louisiana primary: typically, if no candidate wins a majority in the primary, the two candidates receiving the highest pluralities, regardless of party affiliation, go on to a general election that is in effect a run-off. This often has the effect of eliminating minor parties from the general election and frequently the general election becomes a single-party election. Unlike a plurality voting system, a run-off system meets the Condorcet loser criterion in that the candidate that ultimately wins would not have been beaten in a two way race with any of the other candidates.

Because many Washingtonians were disappointed over the loss of their blanket primary, which the Washington State Grange helped institute in 1935, the Grange filed Initiative 872 in 2004 to establish a "Louisiana" primary for partisan races, thereby allowing voters to once again cross party lines in the primary election. Supporters claimed it would bring back voter choice; opponents said it would exclude third parties and independents from general election ballots, would result in Democrat or Republican-only races in certain districts, and would in fact reduce voter choice. The initiative was put to a public vote in November 2004 and passed. On July 15, 2005, the initiative was found unconstitutional by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. [2] The Supreme Court will hear the Grange's appeal of the case in October. Open primaries have also been placed to the voters in California (as Proposition 62), but failed after heavy advertising from the established political parties bringing up the specter of the Louisiana primary and of the 2002 French presidential election.

In elections using voting systems where strategic nomination is a concern, primaries can be very important in preventing "clone" candidates that split their constituency's vote because of their similarities. Primaries allow political parties to select and unite behind one candidate.

Presidential Primaries

In the United States, New Hampshire has drawn international attention every four years because it holds the first U.S. presidential primary election and often (although not always) gives a candidate the momentum to win the nomination.

A criticism of the current Presidential primary election schedule is that it gives undue weight to the few states with early primaries, as those states often build momentum for leading candidates and rule out trailing candidates long before the rest of the country has had a chance to weigh in, leaving the last states with virtually no actual input on the process.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) proposed a new schedule and a new rule set for the 2008 Presidential primary elections. Among the changes: the primary election cycle would start nearly a year earlier than in previous cycles, states from the West and the South would be included in the earlier part of the schedule, and candidates who run in primary elections not held in accordance with the DNC's proposed schedule (as the DNC does not have any direct control over each state's official election schedules) would be penalized by being stripped of delegates won in offending states. The New York Times called the move, "the biggest shift in the way Democrats have nominated their presidential candidates in 30 years." [3]

Of note regarding the DNC's proposed 2008 Presidential primary election schedule is that it contrasts with the Republican National Committee's (RNC) rules regarding Presidential primary elections. "No presidential primary, caucus, convention, or other meeting may be held for the purpose of voting for a presidential candidate and/or selecting delegates or alternate delegates to the national convention, prior to the first Tuesday of February in the year in which the national convention is held." [4]

Primary Systems State-by-state

As primary systems used in the states change over time, a good state-by-state listing of primary types is often hard to find. States that currently have open primaries include Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

For information about a particular state's primary, the best source of up-to-date information is often the official website of the state in question. For example, California lists detailed information about its current "modified closed" (i.e. semi-closed) system on the California state website. [5] Similarly, information on the Arizona semi-closed primary system can be found on the Arizona state website. [6]

Importance of Primary Classifications

While it is clear that the Closed/Semi-Closed/Semi-Open/Open classification commonly used by scholars studying primary systems does not fully explain the highly nuanced differences seen from state to state, they are still very useful and have real-world implications for the electorate, election officials, and the candidates themselves.

As far as the electorate is concerned, the extent of participation allowed to weak partisans and independents depends almost solely on which of the aforementioned categories best describes their state's primary system. Clearly, open and semi-open systems favor this type of voter, since they can choose which primary they vote in on a yearly basis under these models. In closed primary systems, true independents are, for all practical purposes, shut out of the process.

This classification further affects the relationship between primary elections and election commissioners and officials. The more open the system, the greater the chance of raiding, or voters voting in the other party's primary in hopes of getting a weaker opponent chosen to run against a strong candidate in the general election. Raiding has proven stressful to the relationships between political parties, who feel cheated by the system, and election officials, who try to make the system run as smoothly as possible.

Perhaps the most dramatic effect this classification system has on the primary process is its influence on the candidates themselves. Whether a system is open or closed dictates the way candidates run their campaigns. In a closed system, from the time a candidate qualifies to the day of the primary, he must cater to strong partisans, who tend to lean to the extreme ends of the ideological spectrum. In the general election, on the other hand, the candidate must move more towards the center in hopes of capturing a plurality.

Primaries worldwide

References

See also

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