Use Elsewhere in The United States
The plan is also used in Texas and some other states in special elections, but not primaries. A notable example involved former United States Senator Phil Gramm, who in 1983 (while a member of the House of Representatives), after switching from the Democratic to the Republican Party, resigned his seat as a Democrat on January 5, then ran as a Republican for his own vacancy in a special election held on February 12, and won rather handily.
Alaska, like Washington state and California, used the similar blanket primary until 2000, when it was ruled unconstitutional. There was also an effort in Oregon to pass a similar law, but the Oregon Senate rejected it in May 2007 and it failed in a November 2008 referendum.
Likewise, other elections throughout the United States such as mayoral elections, local council elections, and school boards, etc. may operate as non-partisan or semi-non-partisan elections. Such examples include Mobile, Alabama city council and mayoral elections and the Fresno, California mayoral primary.
Read more about this topic: Nonpartisan Blanket Primary
Famous quotes containing the words united states, united and/or states:
“Vanessa wanted to be a ballerina. Dad had such hopes for her.... Corin was the academically brilliant one, and a fencer of Olympic standard. Everything was expected of them, and they fulfilled all expectations. But I was the one of whom nothing was expected. I remember a game the three of us played. Vanessa was the President of the United States, Corin was the British Prime Minister—and I was the royal dog.”
—Lynn Redgrave (b. 1943)
“God knows that any man who would seek the presidency of the United States is a fool for his pains. The burden is all but intolerable, and the things that I have to do are just as much as the human spirit can carry.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“The Constitution of the United States is not a mere lawyers’ document. It is a vehicle of life, and its spirit is always the spirit of the age. Its prescriptions are clear and we know what they are ... but life is always your last and most authoritative critic.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)