Primary Elections vs. Caucuses: Differences and Importance in Nomination, Slides of Political Science

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What’s the difference

between a primary

and a caucus?

• dUrINg THE NEw HAmpSHIrE prImAry, rEpUBlICAN prESIdENTIAl CANdIdATE mIT T romNEy vISITS BEdford HIgH SCHool , JANUAry 8,

Primary elections and caucuses

differ in how they are organized

and who participates. And rates

of participation differ widely.

primaries: State governments fund and conduct

primary elections much as they would any election:

voters go to a polling place, vote and leave. voting

is anonymous and quickly accomplished. Some states

hold “closed” primaries in which only declared party

members can participate. for example, only registered

democrats can vote in a closed democratic primary.

In an open primary, all voters can participate, regard-

less of their party affiliation or lack of affiliation.

Caucuses: State political par ties organize

caucuses, in which faithful par ty members speak

openly on behalf of the candidates they support for the

party nomination. They are communal events in which

participants vote publicly. Caucuses tend to favor candi-

dates who have dedicated and organized supporters who

can use the caucus to elect convention delegates pledged

to their favored presidential candidate. Caucus participants

also identify and prioritize issues they want to include

in the state or national party platform. participation in

a caucus requires a high level of political engagement

and time. Consequently, caucuses tend to attract

fewer participants than primaries.

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• TodAy All 50 STATES ANd THE dISTrICT of ColUmBIA HAvE EITHEr prESIdENTIAl prImArIES or CAUCUSES.

for many years, Iowa has held the first caucuses, generally in January or early february of the presidential election year, and New Hampshire the first primary, a short time later.

Because these and other early contests frequently

establish which candidates lack enough support to

contend seriously for the presidency, candidates expend

great effort in these early states, addressing their needs

and interests and organizing campaigns within even

smaller states, spending money on staff, media and

hotels. As a result, more and more states schedule their

primaries and caucuses in the winter months. many

states hold their events on the same day.

The major parties frequently tweak the rules

in ways they hope will produce the strongest possible

candidate. for example, in 2016, the republicans will

allow states that hold their primaries after march 15

to award their delegates “winner-take-all,” so that

the candidate who earns the most votes—even if it’s

only, say, 25 percent of the votes in an eight-candidate

field—will capture all that state’s delegates.

A major outcome of the proliferation and acceler-

ation of primaries and caucuses is that the nominees of

the major parties are known before the national party

conventions are held in late summer. This has diminished

the importance of the national nominating conventions,

which have become largely ceremonial events.

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Alaska

Washington

Oregon

California

Nevada

Idaho

Montana^

North Dakota

South Dakota

Minne

Nebraska

Kansas

Oklahoma

Texas

Wyoming

Utah

Arizona^ New Mexico

Colorado

Hawaii

Alaska