Photo courtesy of unsplash.com
The United States presidential primary race is well underway. The formal results of the 2020 United States presidential primary election as of 7 p.m. EST are that 86 of the 87 declared Republican delegates will support President Donald Trump with the remaining delegate declared to former governor Bill Weld. The Democratic vote is more split with 100 total delegates declared: 45 to Senator Bernie Sanders, 25 to former Mayor Pete Buttigieg, 15 to former Vice President Joe Biden, 8 to Senator Elizabeth Warren and 7 to Senator Amy Klobuchar.
The two types of voting events are caucuses and primaries. The primary difference between these two events is that caucuses are organized by the political parties within the state and primaries are run by the state government.
Additionally, caucuses are more complicated events where people meet in a variety of public centers to discuss candidates. The discussions allow representatives of candidates to win over voters who are yet undecided.
The first voting events of the season were the Iowa Caucuses held Feb. 3. This year there were complications tabulating results of the Democratic Iowa Caucus due largely to their launch of an app to collect data. The primary season began much earlier than the first voting event, however.
The first presidential debates that took place for the Democratic party were held in two groups June 26 and 27 in 2019, and the first presidential debates for the Republican party were held September 24 of 2019.
The presidential primary race will not conclude until the Democratic and the Republican National Conventions are held from July 13 to 16 and August 24 to 27, respectively.
National Conventions are the events at which parties formally select their nominees for President, as primaries and caucuses are not the official vote. The conventions are also a time for each party to develop their platform, which is a decisive list of their principles and goals.
Student Voices:
“It appears that the candidates that are most likely to represent their parties are either extremely liberal or extremely conservative, which makes people with more moderate views like myself to be less likely to vote for either major party candidate in the presidential election.”
“The primaries have been going well but I’d rather there be a very clear candidate on the democrat side be favored my most so we don’t have a repeat of the 2016 race”
“The American democracy is a ruse”
“Trump’s gonna win. At best it will be a repeat of 2016, and at worst it shall be a landslide for the Donald.”
“The primaries are pretty fun to watch. Nothing really get accomplished”
Question: “As an out of state voter, which elections can I participate in?”
Answer: You can vote via absentee ballot in your home state if you are registered there.
Expert Corner:
Associate professor of political science
Dr. Kyle C. Kopko
Assistant Dean of Institutional Effectiveness, Research and Planning and associate professor of political science Dr. Kyle C. Kopko offered his thoughts on the Presidential Primary race and offered advice to students.
Kopko pointed out that oftentimes people do not believe that primaries are important elections, but this is completely untrue.
“Primaries are the elections that determine which candidate will represent a political party in the November election,” Kopko wrote in an email interview. “And in geographic areas that are dominated by one political party, the primary is the most important election because whoever wins that election will sail to victory in November.”
States either have open primary systems where any registered voter can participate, or closed primary systems in which you may only vote in the primary of the party you are registered to. Pennsylvania uses the closed primary system.
According to Kopko, primary elections give people an “opportunity to determine the direction of [their] political party.” In the current primary race, this is more true of the Democratic party, which has been actively contested compared to the Republican party race, which President Donald Trump is winning almost unanimously.
“In many ways, a voter’s influence is greater in the primary than the general election because [there] is lower voter turnout [for the primary],” Kopko said.
Kopko offered advice to anyone unsure of how to go about preparing to vote in a primary election.
“They should prepare just as they would for the general election — they should research the positions of the candidates and vote for the individual that they believe is best, using whatever metrics the voter deems appropriate,” he said.
Lastly, Kopko discussed ways for students to engage with the primary election process beyond voting.
“Campaigns are always looking for volunteers for a variety of tasks. Students should remember that, sometimes, campaign volunteer opportunities turn into job opportunities,” he said.
“At the very least, volunteering is a terrific way of meeting new professional contacts that could serve you well in the future.”
