There is no actual primary election in Louisiana. Instead, the state uses a majority voting system. If a candidate receives the majority of votes cast for the position, he or she wins. However, if no candidate reaches this threshold, a second round of voting is held between the top two votes. Any registered voter can participate in both the first and second round of elections.
See the sections below for general information about the use of primary elections in the United States and specific information about the types of elections held in Louisiana:
- Background: This section describes the different types of primary participation models used in the United States, including open primaries, closed primaries, semi-closed primaries, and top-two primaries. This section also details the various methods used to determine primary election results.
- Electoral Systems Used in Louisiana : This section details the electoral systems used in Louisiana, including elections for Congress and statewide offices (such as state legislative seats, state executive offices, etc.).
- State Laws and Ballot Measures : This section lists the state laws that apply to election politics in Louisiana.
Background
In general, there are two broad criteria by which primary elections can vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction:
- Rules of Participation: Who can vote in party primaries in jurisdictions that hold party primaries? Is participation limited to registered party members, or can other eligible voters (eg non-party voters) participate? In general, there are three main types of participation models in primary elections: open primaries, closed primaries, and semi-closed primaries.
- Methods of determining election results: What proportion of the total number of votes cast must a candidate receive to advance to the general election? Methods of determining primary election results include first-past-the-post voting systems, first-past-the-post voting systems, two-leader primaries, four-leader primaries, and general primaries.