A primary election is a method through which voters select the candidates nominated by their political party from that jurisdiction for a general election that will subsequently take place. This is a very common measure in the United States and there are various types of primary elections. The two basic types are partisan and nonpartisan. Partisan primaries are used to select the candidate who will represent each party in the following general election, while nonpartisan primaries are used to narrow the field down to one eventual position holder. The types of partisan primaries are:
- Closed: In the Closed type of primary elections, only the voters who are registered as members of that particular party, and have hence declared which party they are affiliated with, can vote in the party’s primary. Independents do not have the option of participating in this variant of primaries. California is an example of a state which conducts closed primaries. An advantage of the closed primary is that it boosts party unity and ensures that members from other parties do not participate in the process to nominate weaker candidates. A semi-closed hybrid between closed and open primaries also exists. Like the closed, members registered with a party can vote only in that party’s primary but unaffiliated voters can also vote in the semi-closed primary. Different states have different protocols, allowing independents to choose their party either publicly by registering with it or privately when they go to vote.
- Open: In this system of primaries registered voters do not have to consider their part affiliation while voting and are free to vote in any party primary. If voters have not registered as members for a party before the primary is held, it is known as pick-a-party primary since the voter has the option of choosing his/her party primary on the day of the election. Alabama and Texas are examples of states which have open primaries. Semi-open primaries also take place, in which the voter can vote in any one party’s primary but must publicly affiliate himself with a primary before he or she goes in to vote.
- Run-off: This method prevails primarily in the South in which all candidates (Republicans and Democrats) appear on the same ballot and the recipient of the majority of the vote is awarded the office. A second round is only needed if no candidate receives a majority, in which case the top two candidates (who might even belong to the same party) become opponents in the general election.
- Blanket: This is the hybrid of the open and run-off types in which the ballot is not restricted to candidates from any one party and voters have to select one candidate for every office, regardless of their party. Then, the candidates with the most votes from each party take part in the general election as that party’s nominee. This method was used in California between 1998 and 2000 before the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional (Harrigan & Nice, 2004).
Nonpartisan elections can also make use of primaries to narrow the set of available candidates to a few who advance to the general election. Typical nonpartisan primary elections are those for city, county, or school board elections, and in these, there are many candidates who wish to become officeholders. Hence, the primary is held to either award the seat to the candidate who attains the majority of the votes, or if no one candidate receives a majority, then the two candidates who received most of the votes progress to the general election (Harrigan & Nice, 2004).
References
Harrigan, John J. & Nice, David C. Politics and Policy in States and Communities. 8th ed. New York: Pearson-Longman, 2004.