Understanding Our Constitution - Part 8 - Primaries and Caucuses: Choosing Your Presidential Candidate

The primary elections are run by state governments while caucuses are run by the political parties. A state primary election usually is an indirect election. Although voting for a particular candidate, voters are actually determining how many delegates to the national convention each candidate will receive from that state.

In addition to delegates chosen, both conventions include “unpledged” delegates. For Republicans, these include top party officials. Democrats have unpledged delegates called “Superdelegates”, who are party leaders and elected officials.

Nearly all states have a binding primary, in which the results of the election legally bind some or all of the delegates to vote for a particular candidate, for a certain number of ballots, or until the candidate releases the delegates. A handful of states practice a non-binding primary.

The main types of primaries are the Caucuses, Closed Primaries, and Open Primaries.

12 states hold Caucuses: Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, North Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming.

Each political party decides how they will run their caucus. The caucus is a first step in choosing a candidate. After the caucus, delegates usually go to a state or county convention to vote.

12 states hold Closed Primaries: Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia.

In Closed Primaries, people may vote in a party’s primary only if they are registered members of that party. Independents (Non-Partisans) who are not associated with a political party cannot participate.

1 state holds Semi-Closed Primaries: Massachusetts

In a Semi-Closed Primary, registered party members can vote only in their own party’s primary but also allow unaffiliated voters to participate as well.

13 states hold Open Primaries: Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

In an Open Primary, a registered voter may vote in any party primary. When voters do not 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.

Raiding - where voters of one party cross over, can occur. This allows a party to help choose it’s opposition’s candidate - where they can vote for the weakest candidate.

4 states hold Semi-Open Primaries: Georgia, Illinois, New Hampshire, and Ohio.

In a Semi-Open Primary, a registered voter does not declare which political party’s primary they will vote in. A voter requests a party’s specific ballot.

6 states hold primaries that do not clearly fall into any of the above categories: California, District of Columbia, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Rhode Island.

3 states are unique:

Arizona - Presidential Preference Election: closed to those not registered with a state-recognized party
New Mexico: Republican primary, Democrat Closed Caucus
Texas: Semi-Open Primary and Closed Caucus - voting in the primary is a prerequisite for caucusing.

Early primaries have greater influence in the nomination process, as they can act as a signal to the nation - showing which candidates are popular. Those who perform well early have the advantage of the “bandwagon effect”. Candidates can ignore primaries after the nomination has already been secured and owe less to those states politically.

Many primaries will fall on the same day, forcing candidates to choose where to spend their time and resources. Super Tuesday was created deliberately to increase the influence of the South.