The Difference Between a Closed and Open Primary – Do I Need to Do Anything Different to Vote?
by Vote.org 04/25/2018With primary election season officially upon us, we thought it might be fun to actually talk about why and how our country votes.
From the difference between a caucus and a primary to how you can make sure you’re prepared to vote in your state’s primary, take a look, then, check your registration status to make sure you’re ready to vote in your state’s primary election.
What’s the difference between a closed and open primary? Do I need to do anything different to vote?
Open primaries allow members of any political party to vote in their primaries, regardless of the party affiliation.
In a closed primary, voters must register to vote with the primary whose ballot they wish to vote for. Some states, like California, have a “top two” system where candidates of both parties run on the same ballot, even in the primary.
You can look up what type of your state you’re in here, and if you want to change your political party to vote in a different primary, you can by re-registering to vote with Vote.org.
What’s the difference between a primary and a caucus?
Primaries work like general elections — ballots are secret and if lines aren’t long, voting is a fast process.
Caucuses — Iowa’s being the most famous — are the legacy of days when presidential candidates were chosen by party insiders, not the general voting public. Neighbors gather and vocally vote with their peers — you can even try to convince others to join your group of voters, and caucusing can take hours and hours.
For this reason, turnout during a caucus is dramatically lower than for primaries. According to research by Thomas E. Patterson from the Harvard Kennedy School, turnout across all of the presidential primaries dating back to 1976 was 1.9 percent for caucuses and 28.2 percent for primaries
Why don’t we just pick between primaries and caucuses and stick with one?
While there is undoubtedly a rich history of caucusing in states like, Iowa, as research shows, turnout in primaries is almost always higher.
So why don’t we switch every state to a primary? Because primaries are expensive to administer by state election officials, and caucuses cost states close to nothing, since they’re administered by state political parties.
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