Question

Define and provide the significance of the four following terms:

1.) Blanket Primary

2.) Recall vs. Referendum

3.) Closed vs. Open Primary

4.) Malapportionment

Answer 1

1- BLANKET PRIMARY

In a blanket primary a voter may picks 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.

Significance

A blanket primary gives registered voters maximum choice in selecting candidates among those systems that separate primary from general elections. 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.

2- Recall vs. Referendum

Recall is a procedure that allows citizens to remove and replace a public official before the end of a term of office. Recall differs from another method for removing officials from office – impeachment – in that it is a political device while impeachment is a legal process.

"Referendum" is a general term which refers to a measure that appears on the ballot. There are two primary types of referenda: the legislative referendum, whereby the Legislature refers a measure to the voters for their approval, and the popular referendum, a measure that appears on the ballot as a result of a voter petition drive. The popular referendum is similar to the initiative in that both are triggered by petitions, but there are important differences.

Significance of recall vs referendum

Recall vs referendum are the powers reserved to the voters to enable them, by petition, to propose or repeal legislation or to remove an elected official from office.

3- Closed vs open primary

In a closed primary, only voters registered with a given party can vote in that party's primary. States with closed primaries include party affiliation in voter registration so that the state has an official record of what party each voter is registered as.Closed primaries preserve a party's freedom of association by better ensuring that only bona fide members of the party influence who that party nominates, but critics claim that closed primaries can exacerbate the radicalization that often occurs at the primary stage, when candidates must cater to their party's "base" rather than the political center.

In an open primary, voters of any affiliation may vote in the primary of any party. They cannot vote in more than one party's primary, although that prohibition can be difficult to enforce in the event a party has a primary runoff election. In many open primary states, voters do not indicate partisan affiliation when they register to vote.

Significance of closed vs open primary

The closed primary system had more of an incentive for people to join one of the major parties. This led to people being more involved in the voting process. With the open primary, some argue, more voters become independent and are less likely to participate in the nominating or election processes.The open primary allows nonpartisan or independent voters to participate in the nominating process.

4- Malapportionment

Malapportionment is the creation of electoral districts with divergent ratios of voters to representatives. For example, if one single-member district has 10,000 voters and another has 100,000 voters, voters in the former district have ten times the influence, per person, over the governing body.

Significance-

Malapportionment is one of the most important functions of the decennial census. Apportionment measures the population so that seats in the U.S. House of Representatives can be correctly apportioned among the states.The Constitution does not specify a certain method of apportionment.