All About The Election
Article by Shriya Chowdavarapu, TPT Staff Writer
As the year continues to progress. The 2024 election process is in full swing, so let’s recap what has occurred so far. In order for the presidential candidates to be the main candidates in the elections they have to go through the primary elections. Primary elections are smaller elections where each state votes for a Democratic and Republican candidate that represents that party. These are usually held a couple months before the election starting from the beginning of the year to about right before the actual general election. This year's primary elections are January 15th, 2024 to September 10th, 2024. Each state has a different date on when their primaries are. You are only able to vote in one party’s primary.
Primaries are not only for presidential elections, but they can occur for all other elections that may occur. For example, Senate elections, Governor elections, House of Representative elections all hold primaries as well. These elections help narrow down the candidates to two main candidates, so that instead of voting between many different people in an election, you only have to vote between two candidates. Many states have multiple primaries a year. This year many states are also holding state primaries as well as presidential primaries. If a state has more than one primary in a year, it usually won’t be on the same day, but will rather be on a different day.
Now there are different types of primaries, so let’s go over them. There are three different primaries. There are open primaries, closed primaries, and semi-closed primaries. Open primaries are any person in the state who can vote for a democratic or republican primary candidate no matter what their actual party affiliation is. However, it is important to remember you can only vote in one party’s primary. Which means if you vote in the Democratic primary, you are unable to vote in the Republican primary. Next, the closed primary is the opposite of an open primary. In a closed primary, you are only able to vote in the party primary that you are registered as. For example, if you are registered as a democrat you are only able to vote in the Democratic primary even if you wanted to vote in the Republican primary. Lastly, there is a semi-closed primary which is the same as a closed primary, but if you are not affiliated with a party or an independent voter then you can vote in whatever primary you wish to vote in. Now, depending on your state you will have an open primary, closed primary, or semi-closed primary.
Now let’s go over the results of the primaries that have occurred so far. There are still a lot of primaries that have not occurred yet. A lot of the primaries are being held in the March-May time period. So far, in every state Trump and Biden have won all of the primaries. Which means they are most likely going to be the two people competing in the general election in November.
There have been many candidates who tried to run for presidency this year. However as primaries progress more and more candidates are dropping out. Vivek Ramaswamy, Ron Desantis, Ryan Binkley, and Chris Christie have all dropped out of the elections. Ryan Binkley and Ron Desantis, who were two Republican candidates, have dropped out of the election and have publicly stated their support for Donald Trump in this year's election.
It is important to vote in both the general election as well as the primary elections. Your vote is important and can make a difference in either election. Therefore, make sure you are registered to vote especially if you are someone who turns 18 this year! Your vote is your voice and can make an impact on who has a say in decisions that will impact you and the country for the next four years.
Source:
https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/2024-state-primary-election-dates
https://www.fvap.gov/uploads/FVAP/Outreach-Materials/PrimaryElectionsFactSheet.pdf
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ron-desantis-drops-out-2024-republican-presidential-race/