The US Presidential Primary Elections

Posted: August 27th, 2021

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The US Presidential Primary Elections

The US presidential primary elections are part of nominating party presidential representatives for the general elections. However, the process for conducting these elections is not specified in the United States Constitution; preferably, it is provided by individual parties (“Presidential Election Process”). The selection process also varies across states, where some conduct only elections while others hold caucuses or both. The election is staggered, sometimes held from January or February to mid-June before the primary elections in November (“Presidential Election Process”).  The state or the local governments run them. However, the caucuses are conducted as private events by the respective political parties. Besides, the primary elections are indirect, such that voters elect between candidates that are then chosen into the office during the general elections, which is determined by the number of delegates (“Presidential Election Process”). Hence, the selected delegates then nominate their respective party presidential nominees.

The Voting Process

The party determines the number of delegates that can be allocated in each state. This includes the delegates that had pledged the caucuses and primary selection. Besides, during state and local government primaries, the unpledged delegates are also included both for Republicans and Democrats, given that they have votes (“Presidential Election Process”). Notably, the unpledged category in the case of Republicans is the three topmost officials in the party. In the case of Democrats, it is expanded to include superdelegates, elected officials, and party leaders. However, if no candidate secures the majority, the party enters a brokered convention. In this case, the pledged delegates are released once the first round of voting is completed (“Presidential Election Process”). Here, they are free to switch sides to a candidate of their choice. Afterward, another voting round is taken to seek a winner. Thus, the absolute winner is attained when one attains the absolute majority.

Counting of Votes

A roll call is made during the convention, where each delegate announces the vote tallies. A state boost usually accompanies this. The process may end in delegation preferences being passed. The process is also designed to allow different delegations to give the leading candidate cast the deciding vote that makes the absolute majority (“Presidential Election Process”). However, a brokered convention is initiated if the first voting round fails to get the absolute winner. Thus, the pledged delegates are released to choose the next preferred candidate in the second round.

            The US presidential primaries impact the voters in different ways. First, some states are considered not representative since most are white (“Presidential Election Process”). Hence, they fail to conform to the principle of representation. Besides, some states’ decision remains at the primary and end up remaining irrelevant in the final election for the president.

The pros for this process are that states can be rallying to select their preferred candidate during the primary. It also gives parties to compress their calendars, reduce overspending during primaries, and reserve resources for general elections (“Presidential Election Process”). Nevertheless, it limits the number of voters that choose the final nominee, mainly because of the large population in some states. Thus, this is worse when a familiar candidate has a strong financial support base. Therefore, the voters’ general population lacks the opportunity to vote, which eventually undermines the ultimate representation.

Works Cited

“Presidential Election Process.” 13 July 2020, www.usa.gov/election.