Calendar
| Primary key | |
|---|---|
| Primary type | Explanation |
| Closed | Voters may only select candidates of the party for which they are registered |
| Open | Anyone is allowed to vote for candidates from either party |
| Modified open | Voters registered to a party may only select candidates of that party, but independents may choose candidates from either party |
| Caucus | Party members meet among themselves to select candidates. Rules may be very complicated, including members having to choose publicly by standing in groups by preference, instead of secret ballot |
| Primary | An election-type selection process, with general voters going to polling places for a secret ballot |
| Convention | Delegates chosen locally by each party meet in a central location and select a candidate |
| Presidential preference | Those polled get to list candidates in the order of whom they like most. As candidates are eliminated, the highest remaining on their list becomes their vote |
| WTA | Winner Take All—whoever wins the most votes in the state, even if not a majority, gets all of the delegates |
| Proportional | The state's delegates are divided up among the candidates, in proportion to their percentage of the vote |
Republican candidates in the 2008 U.S. presidential election campaigned for the nomination of their party in a series of primary elections and caucus events.
Unlike the Democratic Party, which mandates a proportional representation for delegate selection, the Republican Party has no such limitation. For states with primaries, some states choose to use the "winner-take-all" method to allocate delegates within a state, while others do winner-take-all within a specific congressional district, and still others use the proportional process. Unlike the Democratic Party, state party by-laws determine whether each delegate is pledged and for how long the delegate is pledged.
In caucus states, most state parties use a two pronged process. A straw poll, often called a presidential preference poll, is conducted of the attendees at the caucus. The results are released to the media and published on the state party website. Delegates are then elected to the county conventions. It is at the county conventions that delegates are elected to state conventions, and from the state convention to the national convention. At each level, delegates may be bound or unbound to a candidate. If unbound, delegates are not obligated to follow the results of the presidential preference poll. Thus, all estimates of delegates from caucus states are dependent on state party by-laws.
Read more about this topic: 2008 Republican Primaries
Famous quotes containing the word calendar:
“To divide one’s life by years is of course to tumble into a trap set by our own arithmetic. The calendar consents to carry on its dull wall-existence by the arbitrary timetables we have drawn up in consultation with those permanent commuters, Earth and Sun. But we, unlike trees, need grow no annual rings.”
—Clifton Fadiman (b. 1904)