Primaries: Open and Closed

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[Maelstorm]

Primaries: Open and Closed

Open primaries (or pick-a-party) are those in which voters of any affiliation may vote for the slate of any party.

Closed primaries are those in which only the voters affiliated with a party may vote in its primary.

Blanket primaries (or "jungle primaries") are those in which voters, regardless of affiliation, may choose the party primary in which they want to vote on an office-by-office basis. The blanket primary was struck down in 2001 by the Supreme Court in CA Democratic Party v. Jones.

The following is a running list of states by primary type: open, potentially closed, or with special provisions. We say "potentially" because these states require voters to affiliate by party, which allows parties the option to close their primaries.

Please contact info@fairvote.org with any questions.

State	Closed	Open	Other	Remarks
Alabama		x
Alaska			x	Blanket primary for four of five registered parties. Republicans use closed primary.
Arizona	x
Arkansas		x		Voter must vote in runoff primary of same party.
California	x
Colorado	x
Connecticut	x
Delaware	x
District of Columbia	x
Florida	x
Georgia		x		Voter must vote in runoff primary of same party.
Hawaii		x
Idaho		x
Illinois			x	Must vote in primary of same party as last primary vote. Loosely enforced.
Indiana		x
Iowa			x	Voter may change registration at polls.
Kansas	x
Kentucky	x
Louisiana			x	"Effectively open. Top-two runoff system (\""cajun primary\"") used. Closed primary used for Congressional races after 2006."
Maine	x
Maryland	x
Massachusetts	x
Michigan		x
Minnesota		x
Mississippi		x
Missouri		x
Montana		x
Nebraska	x
Nevada	x
New Hampshire	x
New Jersey	x
New Mexico	x
New York	x
North Carolina	x
North Dakota		x
Ohio			x	Must vote in primary of same party as last primary vote. Loosely enforced.
Oklahoma	x
Oregon	x
Pennsylvania	x
Rhode Island	x
South Carolina		x		Voter must vote in runoff primary of same party.
South Dakota	x
Tennessee		x
Texas		x		Voter must vote in runoff primary of same party.
Utah	x			Currently only Republicans close primary.
Vermont		x
Virginia		x
Washington		x
West Virginia	x			Currently only Democrats close primary.
Wisconsin		x
Wyoming	x

[Maelstorm]

It looks like Iowa is fairly open. It will be interesting to see how many Democrats Ron Paul can get to switch to support him.

[Caipirabob]

It looks like Iowa is fairly open. It will be interesting to see how many Democrats Ron Paul can get to switch to support him.

Thank you for putting together this excellent thread, Maelstorm.

This is an issue that's been heavily debated and discussed here at FR and amongst all conservatives interested in preserving the integrity of primaries.

The problem is the corruption by the left and their cronies, such as MoveOn.Org and other groups of the process. They are bringing in people and organizing efforts not to promote democrat candidates, but to select liberal minded candidates from the GOP they know will fracture the party.

It's a major issue, our process is being stolen from us by the leftists who seek to deprive conservatives of their best qualified candidates.

That's why we see socially liberal/socialist/tax luvin'/gun grabbing/abortionists like Romney, Huckabee and Guiliani enjoy such prominence.

The process desperately needs to keep liberals from infecting and corrupting primary results.

I don't have a solution, but I cannot support the credibility of a process that operates without such controls.

[Jack Black]

This doesn’t look very accurate to me. In Washington we have both a primary and a caucus. For Dems the primary is just a beauty contest. For Republican’s the primary is 51% of the delegates, the caucus 49%. I do not believe the caucus’s are open in either case. So 75% of delegates in Washington will be chose in closed processes, not open.

I suspect there are many other simplifications that may add up to this being semi-useless. At minimum I would suggest calling out caucuses in their own column.

[Jack Black]

Date	State	Type	District Level Delegates	At-Large Delegates	State Party Delegates	Bonus Delegates	Total Size of Delegation	Delegate Selection Process
January 3, 2008	Iowa	caucus	15	10	3	12	40	County/state convention[2]
January 5, 2008	Wyoming	convention[3]	3	10	3	12	12/28 [12/14][4]	County/state convention[5]
January 8, 2008	New Hampshire[6]	primary	6	10	3	5	24 [12][7]	Statewide proportional[8]
January 15, 2008	Michigan	primary	45	10	3	2	60 [30][9]	District-level winner-take-all (WTA) + at-large/bonus proportional[10]
January 19, 2008	Nevada	caucus	9	10	3	12	34	County/state convention[11]
	South Carolina[12]	primary	18	10	3	16	47 [24][13]	District-level WTA + at-large/bonus WTA[14]
January 22, 2008	Louisiana	caucus	21	10	3	13	21/47[15][16]	District by county/state convention + at-large/bonus by WTA if 50%+ threshold met
January 25 - February 5, 2008 [17]	Hawaii	caucus	6	10	3	1	20	state convention[18]
January 29, 2008	Florida	primary	75	10	3	26	114 [57][19]	District level WTA + at-large/bonus WTA[20]
February 2, 2008	Maine	caucus	6	10	3	2	21[21]	District/state convention[22]

[edit] Phase three: Super Tuesday, or the National Primary

Since the beginning of 2007, many states have moved, or are discussing plans to move, the dates of their primaries or caucuses up to February 5. The nation's first quasi-"National Primary" may very well take place on that day. This has also been dubbed "Super Duper Tuesday,"^[23] "Tsunami Tuesday,"^[24] "Giga Tuesday," "Mega-Tuesday," "Powerball Primary," "Two-party Tuesday," "Mother of all Tuesdays," and the "Tuesday of Destiny."

Date	State	Type	District-Level Delegates	At-Large Delegates	State Party Delegates	Bonus Delegates	Total Size of Delegation	Delegate Selection Process
February 5, 2008	Alabama	primary	21	10	3	14	48	modified WTA district + proportional at-large/bonus [25]
	Alaska	caucus	3	10	3	13	29	District/state convention[26]
	Arizona	presidential preference election[1]	24	10	3	16	53	Statewide WTA[27]
	Arkansas	primary	12	10	3	9	34	modified WTA district + proportional at-large/bonus (WTA if 50%+)[28]
	California	primary	159	10	3	1	173	WTA district + WTA at-large/bonus[29]
	Colorado	caucus	21	10	3	12	46	district/state convention[30]
	Connecticut	primary	15	10	3	2	30	Statewide WTA[31]
	Delaware	primary	3	10	3	2	18	Statewide WTA[32]
	Georgia	primary	39	10	3	20	72	WTA district + WTA at-large/bonus[33]
	Illinois	presidential preference primary+delegate election[34]	57	10	3	0	70	District delegate election + unpledged state delegates
	Massachusetts	primary	30	10	3	0	43	statewide proportional[35]
	Minnesota	caucus	24	10	3	4	41	BPOU[36]/district/state convention[37]
	Missouri	primary	27	10	3	18	58	statewide WTA[38]
	Montana	invited caucus[39][40]	3	10	3	9	25[41]	Statewide WTA
	New Jersey	primary	39	10	3	0	52	Statewide WTA[42]
	New York	primary	87	10	3	1	101	Statewide WTA[43]
	North Dakota	caucus	3	10	3	10	26	statewide WTA[44]
	Oklahoma	primary	15	10	3	13	41	district WTA + at-large/bonus WTA
	Tennessee	primary	27	10	3	15	55	District proportional (WTA 50%+) + At-large/bonus proportional (WTA 50%+)[45]
	Utah	primary	9	10	3	14	36	Statewide WTA[46]
	West Virginia	convention	9	10	3	8	18/30[47]	multiple ballot WTA[48] [49]

[edit] Phase four: The rest of the race

Date	State	Type	District-Level Delegates	At-Large Delegates	State Party Delegates	Bonus Delegates	Total Size of Delegation	Delegate Selection Process
February 9, 2008	Kansas	caucus	12	10	3	14	39	district WTA + at-large/state party/bonus WTA[50]
	Washington	caucus	27	10	3	0	18 of 40[51]	county/state convention[52]
February 12, 2008	District of Columbia	primary	0	16	3	0	19	DC-wide WTA[53]
	Maryland	primary	24	10	3	0	37	District WTA + at-large WTA[54]
	Virginia	primary	33	10	3	17	63	Statewide WTA[55]
February 19, 2008	Wisconsin	primary	24	10	3	3	40	district WTA + at-large/bonus/party WTA[56]
	Washington	primary	27	10	3	0	19 of 40[51]	district WTA + proportional at-large [57]
March 4, 2008	Ohio	primary	54	10	3	21	88
	Rhode Island	primary	6	10	3	1	20
	Texas	primary	96	10	3	31	140
	Vermont	primary	3	10	3	1	17
March 11, 2008	Mississippi	primary	12	10	3	14	39
April 22, 2008	Pennsylvania	primary	57	10	3	4	74
May 6, 2008	Indiana	primary	27	10	3	17	57
	North Carolina[58]	primary	39	10	3	17	69
May 10, 2008	Wyoming	convention	3	10	3	12	16/28 [8/14]
May 13, 2008	Nebraska[58]	primary	9	10	3	11	33
	West Virginia	primary	9	10	3	8	12 of 30[47]
May 20, 2008	Kentucky	primary	18	10	3	14	45
	Oregon	primary	15	10	3	2	30
May 27, 2008	Idaho	primary	6	10	3	13	32
June 3, 2008	South Dakota	primary	3	10	3	11	27
	New Mexico	primary	9	10	3	10	32

[Wonder Warthog]

"It's a major issue, our process is being stolen from us by the leftists who seek to deprive conservatives of their best qualified candidates."

There is ZERO evidence that this has ever happened. In fact, in Louisiana, when that state switched from "closed" primary to their "top two/open" primary, the REPUBLICANS were the ones who gained hugely. Before that, it had been "all Democrat, all the time".

[Caipirabob]

As a matter of fact, it New Hampshire there were reports of MoveOn.Org encouraging people to come and vote in the primaries there. NH, with an open primary, does not validate or confirm potential primary voters for affiliation or residency. Republicans in that state have complained and as of yet have been unable to change the process.

[Just another Joe]

Hate to tell you this but Missouri is not an open primary.

You can only vote for the candidates of YOUR party, not any party.

This is one of the few things I hate about Missouri as an independent voter.

[Wonder Warthog]

"As a matter of fact, it New Hampshire there were reports of MoveOn.Org encouraging people to come and vote in the primaries there."

Rumors, you mean. Yeah, it gets talked about a lot, but how many people are actually going to give up the chance to vote for their own candidates to actually "do" something like this.

As I said, I've yet to see any solid evidence of this kind of thing affecting ANY election.

[Caipirabob]

I look forward to your assessment:

New Hampshire: Voting laws get close look Primary boosters watch for changes.

Questions Mount Over New Hampshire's Primary

New Hampshire's Primary Counter Fraud Measure SB403

[Wonder Warthog]

What in those articles is supposed to prove any incidence of a “cross-over voting conspiracy”? They’re more about out-and-out vote fraud.