Presidential Primaries

Presidental Primaries

Presidential primaries have become the dominant means of selecting the two major party candidates. The primary system is one in which the eligible voters of each state doone of the following: 1) Vote for a presidential candidate to run for their party in the general elections 2) Vote for a delegate pledged to vote for a certain candidate at the party’s nationalconvention. As intended, this process would bring the candidate selection processes out into the open and let the people vote for the candidate of their choice. On the surface, this may look very democratic,but upon closer examination, it becomes overwhelmingly clear that the candidates are chosen long before the people cast their vote. The culprit: the structure of the presidential primary system.The most influential structural element of the new primary system is the newfound practice of the political parties choosing a favored candidate before the primary season. The parties then throw alltheir support and financial backing behind this candidate and instantly make him/her a front-runner. While this element is standard among the two parties, the remaining structure of the primary systemdiffers between the two main political parties. While both the Democratic and Republican Parties hold open and closed primaries, the two parties hold many of their state primaries on separate dates.Additionally, the two parties have different rules that determine how each state’s delegates are allotted. The Democrats practice the proportional representation method of delegate allocation. TheRepublicans, on the other hand, practice the winner-take-all method of delegate allocation.

Open vs. Closed Primaries
Open Primary: An open primary is a primary voting system in which a voter,regardless of party affiliation, can pick the ballot of any party he chooses to vote for in that particular primary. For instance, a Democratic voter could vote in a Republican primary in a state with...