The blanket primary is a system used for selecting political party candidates in a primary election in the USA. In a blanket primary, voters may pick one candidate for each office without regard to party lines; for instance, a voter might select a Democratic candidate for governor and a Republican candidate for senator. The candidates with the highest votes by party for each office advance to the general election, as the respective party's nominee. It differs from the open primary – in open primaries voters may pick candidates regardless of their own party registration, but may only choose among candidates from a single party of the voter's choice. A blanket primary gives registered voters maximum choice in selecting candidates.
Compared to other primary systems, the blanket primary is less restrictive for voters because it does not limit them to selecting from only one party's candidates. Mainstream political parties, however, saw this as a disadvantage because it discouraged party loyalty, especially among moderate voters who did not identify strongly with either party. The system also has potential for tactical voting: Voters opposed to one party might disingenuously choose a weaker candidate from that party, setting the candidate up to lose in the general election.
In 2000 the Supreme Court of the United States struck down California's blanket primary in California Democratic Party v. Jones. Similar systems used by Washington and Alaska were also struck down in subsequent Supreme Court cases.
The blanket primary survives in a different form, known as the nonpartisan blanket primary or jungle primary, in Louisiana.
In response to the aforementioned Supreme Court decision, Washington state voters passed Initiative 872 in 2004 to adopt the Louisiana-style nonpartisan blanket primary; while lower courts, following the ruling in California Democratic Party v. Jones, struck down the initiative, the Supreme Court ruled on March 18, 2008 in Washington State Grange v. Washington State Republican Party et al. that Initiative 872 was at least facially constitutional and could go into effect.
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