The California Independent Voters Network has this article by Edward Bonnette, explaining the difference between open primaries and top-two primaries. CAIVN carries articles of varying viewpoints, but for the most part it is a site run by supporters of top-two primaries. This article is very useful because in the past, many advocates of top-two systems have insisted on referring to top-two systems as “open primaries”. As the article explains, in open primaries, each party has its own nominees and its own primary, so “open primary” is not a good term for top-two systems.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
why not explain blanket primary?
Yes, the CAIVN story would have been better if it had included the blanket primary, but sometimes simplicity is valuable and there are reasons why an author might want to limit an article to a comparison of just two systems.
How about NO primaries ??? — to join *divine right of kings* in the political history graveyard.
——-
P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.
ONE election day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_election
“Top-two” is the most closed of all primary systems. Under “top-two” there is only one party with one primary. All candidates and all voters are forced by the State to participate in this single party. All other parties – including the Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and Greens are eliminated by force. They are no longer allowed to select candidates for the real election – the General Election in November.
The “Top-two” Party becomes the only legal party. It places two candidates on the sham election ballot in November.
The ultimate intent of “top-two” as revealed by numerous recent bills, only one candidate of the “Top-two” party will be allowed to run with no competition and no write-ins. Worse, some of the “top-two” henchment have introduced bills to just end the elections in November and declare the “top-two” winner the winner without any General Election at all.
The evil intent of “top-two” is to end free elections in America.
This is what “top-two” really means. The politicians are revealing their intentions before they managed to spread this retread of the old soviet sham electoral system onto the rest of the states in the US.
“Top-two” means the END of free elections in America.
Wake up America!
It’s time to Fight!
Fight the evil “top-two” cabal. Expose all of its evil supporters for what they are!
** Repeal “Top-two” everywhere! **
*** STOP the “Top-two” conspiracy. ***
People sometimes misuse adjectives and confuse the adjective with the noun being modified. For example, some people insist that a primary election is not an election.
Others believe that a primary election is intrinsically partisan. That simply isn’t true.
The word ‘primary’ means first. A primary election is the first stage in a multi-stage election, and determines which candidates advance to subsequent stages.
Some primaries are non-partisan, which means that the determination of which candidates advance is not based on party affiliation, but rather on the collective decision of all voters. There is no restriction on either voters or candidates, a non-partisan primary is open to participation by all.
Most non-partisan elections are for local elections, but 4 States use non-partisan elections for their legislative elections, and 3 States use them for their congressional elections.
Typically for local non-partisan elections, ballots do not contain partisan information. But this is not universal. Minneapolis elections are non-partisan, but ballots include partisan information. In larger cities, political parties are often quite active in recruiting and supporting candidates, even though those candidates do not have an indication of party affiliation on the ballot.
On the other hand, in 6 of the 7 instances of non-partisan legislative and congressional elections, party affiliation does appear on the ballot, with Nebraska legislative elections being the exception.
In some non-partisan primaries, it is possible for a final determination of the winner to occur in the primary, if a candidate to receive a majority. In other instances, twice the number of persons to be elected advance, regardless whether any received a majority of the votes cast. If a single officer is being elected, then the top two candidates advance.
Partisan primary elections choose the nominee of a political party. Participation is limited and restricted. Sometimes the terms ‘open’, ‘closed’, ‘semi-closed’, and ‘semi-open’ are used to describe how that limitation and restrict is applied.
In some cases the restrictions and limitations are quite open and overt: “No Independent or Republicans allowed”. When the restriction is overt, the primary is characterized as being “closed”.
In other cases, the restriction and limitation are less confining. A voter may be permitted to pick their poison. In some cases, the choice of party primary is made in secret, with no public knowledge of the choice. These primaries where the choice is secret are called “open”.
People (ie Riley, above) are sometimes too dumb to recognize a “misnomer.”
A misnomer is when an improper word has been used to name, describe or define something.
A good example of a misnomer is the word “primary” when used in the compound word “primary election.”
“Primary” means: most important; first in a sequence; first in time; first stage in a process etc.
However, when discusing elections in a free society, we have to first consider what the intended process is. In a free society, the General Election (in the US that means in November) is when all candidates and all voters participate to choose their elected representatives and executive officeholders. If the election is free and fair, then every independent candidate and every party wishing to run a candidate will have a place on the ballot. Every voter will be allowed to vote for the single candidate of their choice and the one with the most votes wins.
The so called “primary” elections held around the country are not “primary” at all. They were created and intended as a means for Parties to select their candidates. They are NOT part of the election held in November AT ALL. They are separate elections and are treated as such by the FEC and other laws. Once held, these party candiates are selected. They are the winners and that election is over. There is NO subsequent part. The election is not and never was “primary” by any stretch of meaning.
The fact that some charlatans have chosen to use this misnomer to their advantage to sew seeds of disinformation in an attempt to confuse the weak minded among the general public does not change this fact.
Hence, the constant lies and misinformation being spewed forth by the evil “top-two” conspirators and their paid henchmen.
Once again, the lies and misinformation of Riley and the politicians reveals the evil intent of “top-two.” Thank you Riley for once again exposing yourself to the world.
The evil intent of “top-two” is to end free elections in America.
The politicians plan to spread this retread of the old soviet sham electoral system onto the rest of the states in the US.
… * * * …
Wake up America!
It’s time to Fight!
Fight the evil “top-two” cabal. Expose all of its evil supporters for what they are!
** Repeal “Top-two” everywhere! **
*** STOP the “Top-two” conspiracy. ***
Political primaries are far more devious than even Be Rational has described. They shift the costs of private party activity onto the backs of taxpayers, help improve the chances of party candidates by preselecting the most popular, and gain free advertising for private parties of a very special and valuable kind — the state imprimatur of which are the “serious” poltical parties which voters should consider.