2008 Presidential Election Coverage

 GOGO POLITICS

This system allows a broader participation of voters to express their views on who should represent the party at the next election. In some primaries you do not have to be a party member to vote.

Closed primaries offer a greater degree of participation than caucuses in that voting is not confined to party members. Those voters who have declared an affiliation to a party are allowed to participate in that party’s primary. This declaration can literally be done as the voter enters the polling office with a statement that s/he voted for the Democrats at the last election and that they intend voting in this primary; assuming this was a Democrats primary !!

Open primaries allow even greater participation. The voters of a state, regardless of their party affiliation, can participate in either party’s primary but not both. The advantage of this system is that it allows the most popular candidate to be put forward and one who will have appeal across party lines. This, of course, is an advantage. But the purely democratic nature of this system is open to abuse as in the past there have been cases whereby Democrats, for example, have legally voted at a Republican primary, though not at their own, but have voted for what was the worst candidate. The Republicans have done likewise at Democratic primaries. Twenty nine states use this system of voting.

Blanket primaries offer the widest possible participation. Voters are allowed to vote in both primary elections of the parties - i.e. at both the Republican and Democrat primaries.

States also vary in the way they allocate delegates to the presidential candidates. Some primaries use the 'winner-take-all' system (WTA) whereby the candidate who wins the most votes at a primary gets all of the delegates.

The alternative system is the proportional representation primary (PR) which allocates delegates in proportion to the number of votes they received in the primary. The Democrats have used PR since 1969 in an effort to increase the voice of the minority groups and to broaden the appeal of the candidates. However in recent years the party has used WTA in larger primaries and some of the larger states favour such a system as they feel that WTA increases their political clout in the overall nomination process of the presidential candidate.

Some primaries are also called "advisory primaries" as the elected delegates to the national convention do not have to follow the views of the voters and they are free to follow their own preference for presidential candidate. However, the voters have expressed their advice - hence the title - on the ballot paper.

Other primaries are called "mandatory primaries" or "binding primaries" as the views of the voters with regards to the presidential candidate are binding on the delegates and the delegates at the national convention cast their votes accordingly.

However, this was successfully challenged in 1982 when the Supreme Court declared that a state could not force a delegate to a national convention to support the winner of his/her state’s presidential primary (Democratic Party v La Follette).

Democrats

Republicans