ART. III, SECTION 8. OPEN PRIMARIES
April 16, 2008 – 6:05 am(a) This section shall apply to all elections except the primary election for President of the United States and the delegates to the national party committees for the selection of a presidential candidate.
(b) Any candidate who meets the criteria for being listed as a candidate for election for office in a general election shall be listed on the ballot for the general election. A candidate may elect to drop out of an election no later than 30 days prior to the date of the general election.
(c) Political parties, at their own expense, may conduct primaries or caucuses to determine which candidate is the designated candidate for the party in an election for elected office. Parties may restrict such designation to only one candidate but are not required to do so.
(d) No later than 60 days prior to an election, the political party will certify to the election officials responsible for the election in question which candidate or candidates are designated to represent the party in the general election. Those candidates will have a designation after their name on the ballot indicating their partisan affiliation.
(e) No candidate may be a designated candidate of multiple political parties.
(f) Any candidate not designated by a political party as that parties’ candidate shall be listed as an independent on the general election ballot.
(g) In the case of more than 2 candidates running for the same office, any candidate receiving a majority vote shall be certified the winner of the election. If no candidate receives a majority vote, the top 2 vote recipients shall compete in a run-off election 21 days after the general election. The highest vote recipient in the run-off election shall be certified the winner in the run-off election. In the case of only one or two candidates running for the same office, the highest vote recipient shall be certified the winner of the election.
(h) In races where more than one seat for the same office is open (i.e. multi-member districts, school boards, etc), the highest vote recipients shall be certified as the winners of the elections. There shall be no run-off elections in these races.
(i) “Slating” of candidates by political parties is prohibited.
One Response to “ART. III, SECTION 8. OPEN PRIMARIES”
I love the part about political parties paying for their own primaries. If only we could do that at the federal level! I would like to see a longer period of time between the chosen nominee of a party and the general election. I think 60 days is not enough time to grill candidates. An informed public votes the best. Give the candidates time to show themselves to the people before we cast our vote.
By MarkinIL on Jun 17, 2008