Iowa kicks off the primary season with its caucus today, and New Hampshire follows with its primary on February 9. After that, all the states will hold either caucuses or primaries (or, like Nebraska, both) by mid-June.
What are the differences between primaries and caucuses?
A primary is an official election, where voters cast their ballots for their preferred candidates in secret, as they would for any other election. But in caucuses, participants typically discuss the candidates in an open forum (picture a gymnasium, public library or even a living room). In the Iowa Democratic caucus, voting is public and participants try to sway others in the room to switch loyalties. In the state’s Republican caucus, voting is instead done by secret ballot.
What are the classifications and categories of primaries?
Primaries come in two main categories-- partisan and non-partisan.
In a partisan primary, each state holds mini-elections for each major political party before the general election date. Candidates of the same political affiliation face off to determine who will receive the party nod and advance to compete with the candidate of the other major political party in the general election. Who can vote in a partisan primary depends on the law.
There are three types of partisan primaries-- open, closed, and semi-closed.
In an open primary all voters can select a ballot for any party, regardless of their political registration, but they can only vote in one contest. Most states require that voters be registered with some political party. Open primary supporters argue more people can participate when independent voters are encouraged to cast ballots.
Closed primaries are only open to those registered with that party. But some states opted for semi-closed primaries to avoid exclusion of independent voters. In that case, independents are allowed to cast ballots in either party’s primary.
California and Washington state hold non-partisan primary election, sometimes called a “jungle” primary. In these states all candidates for office run on the same ballot in one primary, and the candidate who wins a simple majority of the vote wins. If nobody wins more than 50% of the vote, then the top two candidates advance to a runoff election.
Who organises these and how?
Both primaries and caucuses are run at the state level, though caucuses are actually controlled by state party organisations — Democrats and Republicans — while primaries are run by state governments. Some primaries and caucuses are “closed,” meaning that only registered party members can take part; others are “semi-closed” and open to unaffiliated voters; and still others are “open,” so any registered voter can participate.
Voting in a primary is generally a quick activity, and can take place at any point during scheduled voting hours. Participating in a caucus can literally take hours, and if one is not available when it takes place, then he/she can’t participate.
Given the time commitment required and the open nature of the format, caucus participants tend to be much more politically active than an average primary voter. But as a result, far fewer people end up taking part in the process.
Why Iowa and New Hampshire races are so important?
Iowa and New Hampshire do have outsize influence on the nomination process simply because they both go first. If a candidate wins in Iowa or New Hampshire, they prove their viability in the larger nomination contest and gain valuable momentum as they head into the rest of primary season. In fact, since 1980, all of the eventual Democratic and Republican nominees won in either Iowa, New Hampshire or both, with the exception of Bill Clinton in 1992.
Not only do these two state-wide contests help to propel the winners, they also winnow the field. Candidates who perform poorly will face growing pressure to drop from the race. So the candidates, political parties, donors and media all pay close attention to what happens in Iowa and New Hampshire.
How did these two states earn the right to go first?
Iowa earned it by accident in 1972, but New Hampshire has held the title since the Progressive Era. Now both states have written their first-in-the-nation status into law, and the national parties have drafted rules protecting that status — at least for the time being.
How does the party nominating process work?
After Iowa and New Hampshire, the South Carolina primary and Nevada caucuses follow. And then on March 1, so-called Super Tuesday, things really get rolling when 14 states (and one territory) hold their primary or caucus all on the same day. By mid-June, all the states will have held their primaries and caucuses. Each state-wide contest earns delegates for winning candidates, and those delegates will formally choose the party nominee at the national party conventions to be held during the summer.
How do the primaries and caucuses lead to eventually choosing a party nomination?
Most of the delegates are “pledged” — or bound by the rules — to vote for the candidate selected by state voters. A minority of delegates, however, are “unpledged,” meaning they can vote for whomever they want at the nominating convention. Since 1968, when the primary system was reformed, the presumptive party nominees have typically been declared even before the final primaries have been held because the front-runner candidates have garnered a majority of delegates. But, there is always the unlikely possibility that by the start of a party convention, no single candidate has secured a majority of delegates from the primaries and caucuses. Then things can really get eventful.
