What Is a Primary Election? (with picture)

A primary election is the preliminary step in the process of electing a candidate running for office in the United States. Many other countries follow different systems, but primaries are often held in the U.S. to see who will receive the nomination from his or her political party during the convention. The candidate who receives the nomination, will run against the candidate nominated by the other party — or parties as the case may be.

Many voters don’t seem to realize that the primary is one of the most important phases of an election. This is when each vote counts the most, because it gives people the ability to decide who the best candidate is. Unfortunately, many people skip the primary election and only vote in the general election, many of them complaining that their party’s candidate is not the one they would have chosen. People who take their vote seriously need to find out when the primary is held in their state so they have a voice in selecting the candidate.

There are four basic types of primaries: open, closed, semi-open, and runoff. An open primary means anyone can vote, despite his or her political party affiliation. A closed primary, on the other hand, allows only those registered with the party to vote for its candidate. A third type is the semi-open primary, which still allows people of all political persuasions to vote in it. The semi-open structure limits each voter to a single primary, however, and the voter must state in advance which party's primary he or she will vote in.

The reason for limiting the vote to a single primary election is to prevent “raiding,” which is a form of political sabotage. Under the open primary structure, some voters will gather others from their own party to go and participate in a rival party’s election in order to vote for the candidate who is least likely to win. Then, they are still able to vote for the strongest candidate in their own party’s primary. The semi-open structure helps keep partisan sabotage from being implemented.

The final type of primary election is the runoff. This system is the least used but most favored by voters who are less than pleased with the two party control of the election system. They may be independents, registered third party voters, or people simply looking for something different from the status quo. As more voters become disenchanted with Republicans and Democrats, and the political climate continues to change, the run off primary may become more popular. If not, more voters may simply decide to stay home rather than continuing to vote for what they see as the “lesser of two evils.”