Primary election

The origins of primary elections can be traced to the progressive movement in the United States, which aimed to take the power of candidate nomination from party leaders to the people.

[citation needed] These similarities have led to the first round of a two-round system sometimes being called a "nonpartisan primary" in the United States.

Unified primary The United States is one of a handful of countries to select candidates through popular vote in a primary election system;[12] most other countries rely on party leaders or party members to select candidates, as was previously the case in the U.S.[13] The selection of candidates for federal, state, and local general elections takes place in primary elections organized by the public administration for the general voting public to participate in for the purpose of nominating the respective parties' official candidates; state voters start the electoral process for governors and legislators through the primary process, as well as for many local officials from city councilors to county commissioners.

In 1968, Hubert Humphrey won the Democratic nomination without entering any of the 14 state primaries, causing substantial controversy at the national convention.

To prevent a recurrence, Democrats set up the McGovern–Fraser Commission which required all states to hold primaries, and the Republican party soon followed suit.

In March 2009, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Grange-sponsored Top 2 primary, citing a lack of compelling evidence to overturn the voter-approved initiative.

[24] In elections using electoral systems where strategic nomination is a concern, primaries can be very important in preventing "clone" candidates that split their constituency's vote because of their similarities.

[30] In the United States, Iowa and New Hampshire have drawn attention every four years because they hold the first caucus and primary election, respectively, and often give a candidate the momentum to win their party's nomination.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) proposed a new schedule and a new rule set for the 2008 presidential primary elections.

Among the changes: the primary election cycle would start nearly a year earlier than in previous cycles, states from the West and the South would be included in the earlier part of the schedule, and candidates who run in primary elections not held in accordance with the DNC's proposed schedule (as the DNC does not have any direct control over each state's official election schedules) would be penalized by being stripped of delegates won in offending states.

The New York Times called the move, "the biggest shift in the way Democrats have nominated their presidential candidates in 30 years.

Unlike an election where the only participation is casting a ballot, a caucus is a gathering or "meeting of party members designed to select candidates and propose policies".

[34] Both primaries and caucuses are used in the presidential nomination process, beginning in January or February and culminating in the late summer political party conventions.

As far as the electorate is concerned, the extent of participation allowed to weak partisans and independents depends almost solely on which of the aforementioned categories best describes their state's primary system.

Open and semi-open systems favor this type of voter, since they can choose which primary they vote in on a yearly basis under these models.

The more open the system, the greater the chance of raiding, or voters voting in the other party's primary in hopes of getting a weaker opponent chosen to run against a strong candidate in the general election.

In the general election, under the assumptions of the median voter theorem, the candidate must move more towards the center in hopes of capturing a plurality.

Indeed, the Lisbon treaty, which entered into force in December 2009, lays down that the outcome of elections to the European Parliament must be taken into account in selecting the President of the Commission; the Commission is in some respects the executive branch of the EU and so its president can be regarded as the EU prime minister.

Parties are therefore encouraged to designate their candidates for President of the European Commission ahead of the next election in 2014, in order to allow voters to vote with a full knowledge of the facts.

[41] On 24 and 25 November 2007, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation political party conducted a non-binding Armenia-wide primary election.

[48] Friedrich Merz prevailed against two competitors Norbert Röttgen and Helge Braun in an online ballot of all CDU party members.

[52] For the 2022 parliamentary elections, the opposition parties organized a primary to select both their candidates for MPs and prime minister.

In that occasion the centre-left The Union coalition held open primaries in order to select candidates for President of Apulia and Calabria.

The primary was a success, involving more than 3,500,000 people across Italy, and gave to the winner Walter Veltroni momentum in a difficult period for the government and the centre-left coalition.

The first primaries in the history of Russia were held in May 2000 in St. Petersburg, the local branches of the parties Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces, who before the Gubernatorial election offered citizens to choose a single candidate from the democratic opposition.

In 2011, United Russia, together with the All-Russian People's Front, held primaries for the nomination of candidates for the Duma election.

All the same, the event played a role in the elimination of candidates: there were cases when the current deputies of the State Duma, having seen that they did not enjoy the support of electors, withdrew their candidacies.

In the future, United Russia has sometimes resorted to an "open" model of primaries, which allows voting to all interested voters.

In 2014, in the primaries of the "United Russia" before the elections to the Moscow City Duma, any Muscovite could vote, and not only registered electors.

A party headquarters may also "parachute" a prominent candidate into an easy-to-win riding, removing the need to have a nomination meeting.