What is a PRIMARY Election?
Primary elections are held when several people in the same political party want to run for a political office. In a primary election the members of a political party vote for the candidate who they would like to represent their party as a candidate for office.
For example, if three members of the Republican Party want to be the Republican Party’s candidate Governor, the voters who are registered as Republicans must vote in a primary election for the one person who they want to be their party’s candidate. The Democrats do the same thing.
The person receiving the most votes in the primary election gets to be their political party’s candidate and run against candidates from other parties in the GENERAL election which will be held on November 5th.
Delaware has a CLOSED PRIMARY meaning that…
1. People must be registered with a political party to be allowed to vote in the PRIMARY election.
2. People can only vote for candidates who are running from the same political party that they registered under. For example, Democrats only get to vote for Democratic candidates while people who register Republican can only vote for Republican candidates.
Delaware will hold its 2024 PRIMARY election on September 10th.
How is a PRIMARY election different from a GENERAL election?
In GENERAL elections voters will decide which candidates will actually be elected to offices.
In PRIMARY elections voters only decide which candidates from the different parties get to run in the GENERAL election.