Presidential Primaries
Part 1: How It Starts
Before the general election can take place, American political parties must trim the list of candidates to
one, since no more than one candidate from any one political party may appear on the ballot for
President. (It used to be the case that the Vice-President would be the second-highest vote-getter, no
matter which party he or she represented. This is no longer the case. Common practice now is for one
candidate to choose a running mate, who would serve as Vice-President if both candidates were
elected as a team.)
The main way that the two major American political parties choose their final candidate is by having a
series of initial elections, in the various American states. These initial elections can take one of three
forms: primary elections, caucuses, and conventions.
A primary election is a sort of "first-round" election, for which candidates
campaign throughout the various states, according to a set schedule. Each of
the states that has a primary election will set a date for that election, and
candidates will try to convince voters in that state to vote for them on that
day. On primary election day, registered voters in a state will go to a polling
place and cast their ballots, meaning that they write or use a machine to select
which of the candidates listed on those ballots they would most like to see in
office. The winner of the primary election is the candidate who gets the most
votes. Unlike the general election, however, it's not winner-take-all. Candidates
win a certain amount of support based on how many votes they have. That
support takes the form of delegates, people who are pledged to arrive at the
political party's national convention and cast their vote for that candidate.
Here's an example: Mei-Ling, Fred, and Raoul are three candidates on the ballot in a primary election.
When the 1000 votes are counted, Mei-Ling has 500, Raoul has 300, and Fred has 200. Because MeiLing got 50 percent of the votes, she gets 50 percent of the delegates to vote for her at the
convention. Raoul gets 30 percent of the delegates, and Fred gets 20 percent.
Each state that has a primary election will have a similar experience, with candidates "winning" but
really getting a majority of the delegates to the national convention. Then, in August or September,
long after the primary elections are done, all the delegates gather at the national convention and cast
their votes for the candidates to whom they are pledged. The result is that the candidate who got the
most votes in the primary elections is officially named as that political party's candidate for President
in the general election.
The previous description is of a closed primary election. A closed election is one in which only voters
registered for a certain political party can vote for the candidates of that party. In other words, if you
are a registered Democrat, when you go to vote, your ballot will contain names of only Democratic
candidates. An open primary election has no such restrictions. Even though all the candidates are of
one political party, anyone can vote for them (Republicans or members of other political parties or
even people who are not registered with any political party.) You don't need to register with a political
party in order to be able to vote. However, most states' primary elections are closed; so if you were
unregistered, you wouldn't be able to vote in those closed elections.
Part 2: How It All Ends Up
A caucus is something remarkably different. People in states that have a caucus do indeed vote, but
they don't cast ballots. Rather, they gather in public places (like schools, churches, and public
libraries) and do more than just vote for candidates. People who attend a caucus discuss important
issues for the presidential campaign and for their own state's agenda.
The most notable caucus is in Iowa because it is the first such caucus held in a presidential election
year. Many other states have caucuses, and they all run a little differently.
The Iowa Caucuses are different for Republicans and Democrats. The Republican
caucus is simpler than the Democratic one. At the Republican caucus, people
gather in their public places and write their preferred candidate's name on a blank
sheet of paper. Votes are tallied, and a winner is named.
The Democratic caucus in Iowa has many layers. First of all, people show up and stand in a designated
area, like a corner of a room, in order to show their support for a particular candidate. Those who
aren't convinced by any candidate so far stand in a separate area. Then, for 30 minutes,
representatives of a particular candidate's campaign (or sometimes the candidate himself or herself)
try to convince the undecided voters to support him or her.
At the end of the 30 minutes, voters get a chance to change areas if they have been convinced to
support a candidate or have decided to go with a different candidate than the one with which they
started. At that point, political party officials count the number of people in each area. The candidates
with the fewest votes lose their designated areas, and the voters who had stood in those areas are
then free to stand in other areas, supporting other candidates. Another 30-minute session takes place,
and candidates or their representatives are again given the opportunity to convince voters to vote a
certain way.
The final head count determines the "winner" (although, as we have seen, the "losers" don't really lose
– they just get fewer delegates at the national political party convention).