Question

Write an essay describing California's unique primary system. In your essay, make sure to discuss how the system works, the reasons why California reformed its primary system in 2010, and the possible drawbacks associated with the system.

• Your essay must be informed by the following two articles, which are available from the course homepage:
  • "Here's How California’s 'Jungle Primary' System Works" (The New York Times)
  • "Making Sense of California's Top-Two Primary System" (KQED News)

• Response length requirement: 350 words or more

Answer 1

The primary system of California is quite simple. They don’t have individual parties. They have placed the entire candidates in a single ballot. The party’s significance is of no importance. The top two candidates can be from the same party. It is not necessary that the positions will be acquired by different candidates. The system is also called jungle primary. The New York Times has reported on the ways the system of Jungle Primary works. The system contains many uncertainties. Parties playing dirty tricks against their opponents are very common practice that can be seen under the jungle primary system.

In earlier times, the elections were as it is described ahead. The parties nominated a candidate as in Democracy. It was a very straight and simple practice without any complexities involved. The voters would choose the candidate of their choice on the basis of the candidate or the party that he/she belongs to. Some developers criticized this way of having elections and proposed the jungle primary system. The election reforms happened in 2010. The top two system introduced to help prevent the consequences that were used to happen from the earlier system of elections. It was a open system that applied only to the statewide and legislative races. Third party candidates were not allowed to enter the system. All the candidates were required to be gathered under single ballot. Why the change? This change in the system happened because the politicians thought that more candidates under single ballot will show coordination, togetherness which will motivate the voters to vote in a great number. They thought this would help maintain the stability in the economy.

KQED news also shared the reasons and the consequences that happened with this new top two primary system. The problems that were associated with such a system should be noticed as well. One of the problems that arose was that the single party had a hard time making the voters to vote. The diversification that existed was used to influence the voter turnout better. Many parties got shut before the upcoming November elections because the top two were getting ahead from the single party.