PRIMARIES AND CAUCUSES

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  • Created by: hermione
  • Created on: 13-02-17 16:14

DEFINITIONS

PRIMARY = An election to select a party's candidate for the presidency.

CAUCUS = A meeting to select a party's candidate for the presidency

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primary

  • A primary is just like a regular election. 
  • People go to their local polling station and cast their vote in complete anonymity.
  • New Hampshire has it written in the constitution that they will always hold the first primary of election year, one week before anyone else.                    
  • 2 MAIN FUNCTIONS OF PRIMARIES...

1) to show the popularity of Presidential Candidate

2) to choose delegates to go to the NPC

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primary

  • Primaries are run under state, not federal law therefore each state decided how they run their primary i.e they decide...

1) whether to have a primary or a caucus (most do primary)

2) when to hold it; always between jan and june

3) how to conduct primary; ballot, electronic, postal

4) who can vote in the primary; closed and open*

5) who can be on the ballot; New York sometimes keeps off the more serious and well known ones...?

6) how to allocate the delegates; proportional primary  = and winner takes all primary *

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open and closed

CLOSED (Florida)

  • in some states, when you register to vote, you have to affiliate yourself with a party. 
  • some states will then only allow registered Democrats to vote in the Democratic primary and registered Republicans to vote in the Republican primary. 

OPEN (Montana)

  • other states don't bother with party affiliation.
  • they allow any registered voter to decide, on the day of the primary, whether they want to vote in the Democratic or Republican primary.
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proportional and winner takes all

PROPORTIONAL (Democrat)

  • candidates are awarded delegates in proportion to the votes they get.

WINNER TAKES ALL (Republican)

  • whoever gets the most votes wins all of that states delegates to the NPC.

*most states set a threshold - a minimum percentage of votes that a candidate must receive to get any of the states delegates (usually 15% of vote)

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FRONT LOADING

  • primaries have become increasingly important and so states have tried to make their primary more influential by moving the date to earlier in the year - FRONT LOADING
  • the number of states holding their primaries or caucuses before the end of march has risen from 11 in 1980 to 42 in 2016 and by February of 2008 55% of the delegates to the Dem. and Rep. conventions had already been chosen
  • the Reps. changed the rules; this meant that in 2012 only 30 states held their contests by the end of march that year
  • Front loading has given rise to another phenomenon called Super Tuesday which is when a large number of states hold their primaries and caucuses on the same tuesday (2016 was March 1st)
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possible reform of primaries

criticism of the current system has led to a call for reform

  • a national primary 
  • a series of 4 regional primaries (North East/south/midwest and west)
  • further limits on money raising and spending
  • a pre-primary mini convention to choose the shortlist of candidates who would then run in the primaries 
  • states voting in order of size of population; beginning with the smallest
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problems with possible reforms

there are 4 problems with the proposed reforms;

  • National Committees and Conventions of both parties would have to agree with the same reform
  • all 50 states would have to agree to change their state laws
  • a number of states strongly favour the current system over any of the proposals above
  • further limiting the money raising and spending would requre an act of congress which would probably be deemed as unconstitional by the Supreme Court - 1st amendment
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