PRIMARY ELECTION

in the United States, an election to select the candidates who will run for public office. Primaries may be closed (partisan), so that only declared party members may vote; or they may be open (nonpartisan), so that voters choose which party's primary they wish to vote in without declaring any party affiliation. Closed primaries may be direct or indirect. A direct primary functions as a preliminary election whereby voters decide on their party's ticket; some form of direct primary is now used in all U.S. states. In an indirect primary, voters elect delegates who choose the party's candidates at a nominating convention. The presidential primaries held in many states are indirect primaries. In most presidential primaries, the delegates elected are bound and pledged (Republicans by some state rules, Democrats by national party rules) to vote in a way that reflects the preferences of the voters. Delegates may be bound for only one ballot or until released by the candidate. In some states, the presidential preference vote is advisory and does not bind the delegates. The delegates can be bound to presidential candidates on a winner-take-all basis, as in many Republican state primaries, or by proportional representation, as in the Democratic primaries, in which any candidate receiving a minimum percentage of the votes is entitled to at least one delegate. Allocating delegates by proportional representation makes it difficult for a candidate to build a delegate landslide out of a series of narrow primary victories. The formal, legally regulated primary system is peculiar to the United States. The earliest method for nominating candidates was the caucus (q.v.), adopted in colonial times for local offices and continued into the 19th century for state and national offices. Nominating conventions, instituted as a means of checking the abuses of the caucus system, also became subject to abuses that led first to their regulation and ultimately to their elimination for most offices except president and vice-president. After 1890, mandatory regulations transformed the primary into an election that is conducted by public officers at public expense. Although direct primaries were used as early as 1842 (by the Democratic Party in Crawford county, Pa.), the system came into general use only in the 20th century, beginning with Wisconsin in 1903. The movement spread so rapidly that by 1917 all but four states had adopted the direct primary for some or all statewide nominations. Except in several Southern states, where primaries are still optional, primaries are now required for all state and local offices in the United States. Attention from the news media has increased the importance of presidential primaries to the point where success, especially in the early primaries, gives a candidate a great advantage in publicity and private campaign funding, whereas failure can end a campaign. Names can be placed on the primary ballot by a simple declaration of candidacy, by nomination at an official or unofficial pre-primary convention, or by the most popular system, a signed petition of a required number of voters. Endorsement of an official party candidate at pre-primary conventions usually results in the candidate's being listed first on the ballot. Usually primaries include only those parties that have polled a fixed minimum at the last election. The merits of open versus closed primaries are widely debated. Proponents of open primaries argue that voters should be able to choose which primary they will vote in at each election. Open primaries allow independents unwilling to declare a party affiliation to vote and prevent voter intimidation. Party organizations prefer closed primaries because they promote party unity and keep those with no allegiance to the party from influencing its choice, as happens in crossover voting, when members of rival parties vote for the weakest candidate in the opposition's primary. Several states compromise by allowing both registered party members and independents to vote in primaries. The closest parallel to the U.S. primary has been the "preselection" ballot of the Australian Labour Party, in which candidates in each locality have been selected by party members in that locality from those offering themselves for the preselection vote.