[EL] many political science studies of open primaries

[Richard Winger]

http://www.ballot-access.org/2013/09/september-2013-ballot-access-news-print-edition/

I saw your inquiry, posted to the election-law list, about whether political scientists have studied the effects of open primaries.  The link above goes to the September 1, 2013 print issue of Ballot Access News.  The front-page story mentions five studies published during 2013.  There are earlier studies as well, as well as books, such as "Voting at the Political Fault Line", lead author Bruce Cain.


The US Supreme Court has defined various types of primaries in several of its decisions, but nevertheless many people don't follow those definitions.  The US Supreme Court and many political science textbooks say "open primary" is one in which any voter, on primary day, is free to choose any party's primary ballot, yet parties do have their own primary ballots and their own nominees.

There are also blanket primaries, and top-two primaries, and sometimes people use "open primary" to refer to them as well, so I'm not sure what you mean by "open primary."  And in Illinois, the press thinks "open primary" means the type of open primary in which the voter's choice of a primary ballot is made in the secrecy of the voting booth.  And in Pennsylvania, the press thinks "open primary" means a closed primary in which party leaders don't make an endorsement.

 
Richard Winger
415-922-9779415-922-9779
PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147
Call
Send SMS
Add to Skype
You'll need Skype CreditFree via Skype
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20140324/ce2ce24f/attachment.html>