Primary election

The Primary (prefix) is a party internal procedure of the major parties in the United States to put the candidates for public office within a party. The method is applied in particular to the choice of presidential candidates in only a part of the American states. It was introduced in order to promote democratic transparency within the parties. The primaries will be held in the period from January to June of the election year. Formally the presidential candidate himself, but delegates are selected for the national convention, the convention nationally in mid-summer in the primaries. The delegates, however, will set a rule on a particular candidate. As a consequence, the result of the nomination is often already fixed in the middle of the primary season. To prevent possible loss of reputation in the public due to escalating discussions, the primaries have been concentrated in a few days. In some states of the USA no primary but a caucus takes place.

A distinction is made between open primary, semi -open primary, semi-closed primary and closed primary.

Open primary

In the open primary, all voters may participate in the primaries of each party. Membership in the party, or even an express party preference are not required. The decision to participate in the preselection of a particular party is encompassed by the secrecy of the ballot.

Semi -open primary

In a semi -open primary, any person may choose from two primaries, either in the Democratic or Republican in the Primary in a. These need not be a party member you, but you must not choose only one of the two.

Semi-closed primary

In a semi-closed primary, all members must choose a party and voters who are members of any party.

Closed primary

In the process of the closed primary requires each voter to publicly confess his party preference. Again, it is not necessary to be a member of a party. Suffice it to express their own party affiliation, by registering for participation in the code, or even just by participating itself

Raiding

Raiding means that voters from one party deliberately choose in the primary of the other party to the weaker candidates in order to have better chances as the correct choice. The problem of Raidings occurs only in states with an open or semi- open primary.