Primary election: Difference between revisions

A '''primary election''' is one in which a [[political party]] selects a candidate for a later election by all registered voters in that jurisdiction (''nominating primary''). Primaries are sometimes open only to registered members of that party, and sometimes open to all voters. In open primaries, voters must typically choose only one primary to participate in that election cycle. Louisiana, U.S.A. is an exception. Until 2004 in the state of Washington, U.S.A., this was also not the case, and voters were able to vote in all parties' primaries on the same ballot, though not for more than one candidate per office. This "[[blanket primary]]" was struck down by the United States Supreme Court as violating the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of assembly.

* ''[[Blanket.'' primary]] - Also called a "jungle primary". No longer in use, allowedAllows voters to vote in either primary, switching party primaries with each office (Ex. Republican Presidential primary, Democratic Gubernatorial Primary, Republican Congressional Primary).

Partisan primary elections tend to result in a [[center squeeze effect]];. a A candidate liked by all voters can theoretically be eliminated from contention because more partisan voters prefer candidates closer to their views, to the detriment of more centrist nonpartisan voters who don't vote in primaries. This is a major reason why the "[[W:Unified primary|unified primary]]" ([[Approvalhas voting]]started +finding [[runoff]]) was advocated;support. it was argued that centristCentrist candidates would have a better chance of avoiding elimination ifunder unified primaries than other methods, since partisans could support both their favorite candidates and the compromise candidates because of the Approval feature, rather than only choosing one, (as required in [[FPTPfirst-past-the-post]] and typical [[Blanket primary|blanket primaries]]).