Ever wonder how primaries and caucuses work? Wonder no longer with Primaries and Caucuses 101. The Presidential race is heating up this election year, but there are quite a few candidates to choose from. It’s important to launch your chosen candidate into the November election, but the first step is your state primary or caucus. This article will provide a breakdown of the types of primaries and caucuses, their functions, and the role of delegates and superdelegates.

Presidential Election Primaries

What It Is: A primary is used to narrow down the candidates and help determine who will receive the party nomination.

How It Works: A primary is when you cast your vote for your favorite candidate, and then the candidates receive delegates who attend the national conventions of their respective party (Democratic or Republican) and vote for a party nominee. This nominee then proceeds to the November election and runs against the other party. For the Democratic Party, the number of delegates is proportional to the election results, whereas the Republican Party awards delegates either based on proportionality or on a winner-take all system (where the candidate with the most votes wins all of the delegates). The primary is an indirect election, as voters elect these delegates to represent their interests at their respective party’s convention.

Types of Primaries

Open Primary: Any voter may vote for a candidate in any party (e.g. a Republican can vote for a Democratic candidate or vice versa).

Closed Primary: Only voters registered with a particular party can vote in that party’s primary (e.g. if you’re a registered Democrat, then you can only vote for a Democratic candidate).

Semi-closed or Hybrid Primary: Voters who haven’t registered with a particular party can choose which party’s primary to vote in. But if you’re registered with a party, then you have to vote in that party’s primary.

Top-Two Primary: Voters receive a full list of candidates and whichever two candidates get the most votes become the candidates who move on to the general election in November.

Caucuses

What It Is: A caucus is defined as a “gathering of neighbors.” Instead of casting ballots, like voters would in primaries, voters meet in local community spaces such as churches, schools, libraries, and houses. Unlike primaries, in which you can vote anytime during the day, caucuses occur at a specific place and at a scheduled time.

How It Works for Democrats:

1. Attendees are counted at the beginning of the caucus process.

2. Participants gather and talk about the candidates. During this process, people try to convince other voters to support their candidate.

3. Voters indicate their support for a particular candidate by standing near their favorite candidate’s designated area. So if you were a huge Martin O’Malley supporter, you would walk over to his campaign area in the room and stand near his other supporters.

4. Once everyone is counted (as supporting their candidate), if a candidate did not receive support from at least 15 percent of the number of attendees, then those supporters have to either support a viable candidate, join with other people to support an un-viable candidate in order to secure at least one or two delegates for that candidate, or abstain from voting. This is called realignment.

5. Everyone is counted again, and candidates with less than 15 percent of the total attendees are removed.

How It Works for Republicans:

A straw poll is taken by secret ballot to influence the delegate. A straw poll is a more informal type of voting that is taken by secret ballot-- unlike the Democratic caucuses, in which voters openly announce their preference for candidates. Then, the straw poll votes are sent to the state party headquarters and the votes are tabulated.

What About the Coin Toss?

You may have heard about the use of coin tosses in the 2016 Iowa Caucus. As strange as it sounds, some states use coin tosses to break ties in precincts that have a odd number of delegates. So let’s say there are seven delegates in Precinct 2. Bernie Sanders gets 25 people and Hillary Clinton gets 25 people, and every voter is adamant about supporting their respective candidate. They would each get 3 delegates, and a coin toss is used to decide who receives the final delegate.

Delegates

Who they are: A delegate is a representative chosen by a group to speak or act in its interests.

What they do: Delegates attend the Democratic or Republican national conventions and elect their respective party’s nominee. This nominee then becomes the candidate in the general election.

Types of Delegates

Pledged Delegate: This type of delegate is elected or chosen at the state or local level, and they are selected with the understanding that they will support a particular candidate at the convention.

Superdelegate: The superdelegates are made up of members of Congress, governors, and former presidents. Unlike delegates, they are not required to indicate preference for a certain candidate, and they can vote for whichever candidate that they want.

Candidates from both the Republican Party and Democratic Party must also win a majority of their delegates to be nominated for their respective national convention.

Super Tuesday

Super Tuesday takes place in February or March (March 1 in 2016), where the greatest number of state primary elections occur in one day. This is thought to be a game-changer for candidates, as the most number of delegates can be won in a single day. Also, the states involved represent diverse geographic and social regions that can help determine a candidate’s national electability.

Now that you know the basics of how presidential primaries and caucuses work, get out to vote! Check here to see when your state primary or caucus is for the 2016 election.