Voter Turnout in Primary Elections

A central argument in opposition to the old-style method of nominating presidential candidates was that it allowed too few people to participate in making the decisions. Presidential primaries and open caucuses were the remedies of choice. And many more people participate in the nomination process. The axioms that inform research on turnout in primary elections are the same as those that underlie research on turnout in general elections. In primary elections as in general elections, people vote when the benefits of voting outweigh the costs. The fact that primary electorates are unrepresentative is often blamed on the fact that primary turnout is nearly always lower than general election turnout. Key argued that the overall level of turnout and the composition of the voting electorate are "almost invariably" related. The percentage of people who vote, of course, varies from election to election, with competitiveness of race, depth of feeling about important issues, and the actions of politicians and their organizations.