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A unified primary (or top-2 approval+runoff) is an electoral system for narrowing the field of candidates for a single-winner election, similar to a nonpartisan blanket primary, but using approval voting for the first round, advancing the top-two candidates, allowing voters to confirm the majority-supported candidate in the general election. [1] [2] [3]
In the US, most primary elections are party-specific: voters select a political party, either as part of the voter registration process or at the ballot box, and may vote only for candidates sharing that same party affiliation. These primary systems use plurality voting, where each voter may express a preference for one candidate per office. The candidate in each party receiving the most votes advances to the general election. Voters not affiliated with a major political party may or may not be able to participate in these primary elections, depending on jurisdictional rules, and candidates not affiliated with a major political party may be nominated to the general election by other processes such as minor party conventions or petition.
The non-partisan blanket primary (aka "jungle primary" or top-two primary) is a single primary election in which all voters may participate, and all candidates appear on the same ballot, regardless of party affiliation or lack of party affiliation. The top two most-voted candidates (even if members of the same party) will appear in the general election. This is intended to allow non-partisan voters and candidates to participate, and to allow more moderate nominees in the general election (since voters from both sides of the spectrum can vote for them). However, the non-partisan blanket primary still only allows voters a single choice per office, and is therefore prone to the spoiler effect, [4] where candidates espousing similar ideologies split votes, helping candidates with opposing ideologies (but fewer candidates) to win.
Like a blanket primary, the unified primary has only one primary election, in which all voters participate, and all candidates appear on a single ballot regardless of political party affiliation. Unlike a blanket primary, the unified primary uses approval voting in the first round, in which voters may express support for any number of favored candidates, which is intended to eliminate vote splitting and spoilers (since voters can support a partisan favorite and a moderate). [5] The top two most-approved candidates will appear in the general election.
| Top-two approval primary | Runoff |
|---|---|
 |  |
Proponents argue [6] that the Unified Primary system will increase voter choice by allowing all voters to participate equally in all stages of the election process, by allowing voters to express support for more than a single candidate, and by allowing all candidates to compete in a uniform election process, regardless of political party affiliation or lack of affiliation. [7]
In contrast, FairVote, a national election reform non-profit that advocates instant-runoff voting, theorized [8] that it is likely that general election races would have two finalists from the same major party in districts where a majority of voters affiliate with that party, and thereby reduce voter choice in the election that has statistically higher turnout than current primary elections.
Unlike single-round Approval voting, the Approval+Runoff method fails independence of clones, because any time the second-most approved candidate wins the runoff, if a clone of the most-approved candidate is introduced, then the runoff will be only between the most-approved candidate and their clone, preventing the second-most approved candidate and any of their clones from winning. [9]
As of 2024, the only city in the United States using a unified primary for government office is St. Louis.
The city of St. Louis has been using the unified primary since their mayoral election held in March 2021, having survived two repeal attempts. The voters of St. Louis will participate in a unified primary as part of the 2025 St. Louis mayoral election, since the constitutional amendment ("Amendment 7") passed in November 2024 exempts cities that had enacted reform prior to 2021 (and St. Louis enacted their unified primary in 2020). [10]
The STL Approves campaign sought to adopt the unified primary (though they refer to it simply as "approval voting") in St. Louis city elections (Mayor, Comptroller, President of the Board of Aldermen, and Alderman). [11] [12] [13] [14] Originally called St. Louisans for Ranked Choice Voting , [15] the campaign switched to advocating for approval+runoff, primarily due to learning that St. Louis and St. Louis County voting machines are incompatible with IRV. [16] [17] [18] [19] [20]
In April 2020 they gathered enough signatures to qualify for the ballot as "Proposition D". [21] [22] Polling showed more than 70% support for the measure, with majority support among all demographic groups and parties. [23] [24] On election day, the initiative was successfully passed with 68% of the vote, thus becoming the first United States city and jurisdiction to adopt it. [25] [26]
The first top-two approval primary was held on March 2, 2021, with a 44,571 (22.14%) primary voter turnout. The April 6, 2021 runoff turnout was 57,918 (28.8%). [27] The 2021 St. Louis mayoral election had 4 candidates, three Democrats and one Republican. The average voter supported 1.56 candidates, with the top candidate gaining 57.0%, runner up 46.3%. [28]
| March 2, 2021 Primary Election Results [29] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  Andrew Jones | |
| Party preference: | Democratic Party | Democratic Party | Democratic Party | Republican Party |
Votes of approval: | 25,388 | 20,659 | 17,186 | 6,428 |
| Approval percentage: | 56.96% | 46.35% | 38.56% | 14.42% |
| Total Vote Cards Cast: 44,571 | ||||
In the old closed primary system, there would have been a Democratic party primary with 3 candidates, and a Republican party primary with 1 candidate, with the top Democrat and top Republican advancing to the general election. With Saint Louis being a Democrat-majority city, the top-two approval primary helps two Democrats rise and compete head-to-head in the runoff, as well as allowing Republican voters a say on which Democrat wins. Democrat candidates have some incentive to present themselves as a moderate to gain Republican votes. Without a party primary Republicans lose access to consolidate under a single candidates, so they must agree on a single candidate before the primary to have any chance of making the top-two.
While voter support for the approval voting ballot measure was high, a majority of the city's aldermen opposed it, and in January 2022, they attempted to repeal it and return to partisan primaries with two or three rounds of runoff voting. [30] [31] [32] Repealing a voter initiative requires a two-thirds majority of aldermen support, however, and the bills were not passed before another voter initiative, Proposition R, was passed with 69% support, which required that further changes to the voting system be put to a public vote. [33]
In February 2024, Ben Baker introduced legislation to ban approval and ranked-choice voting state-wide. [34] [35] It passed in the House on Apr 15, 2024. [36] .
The use of approval voting on an open field of all candidates for partisan office as a replacement for current party-nominated primary systems was first publicly proposed in November 2011 [37] by Mark and Jon Frohnmayer in the form of a draft ballot initiative. The text of the failed Oregon Ballot Measure 65 (2008), which would have instituted a top-two primary system, served as the foundation for the draft, which was then modified to allow voters to select as many candidates as favored for each office. [38]
A formal petition drive to institute the Unified Primary system in Oregon began in October 2013. [39] Petitioners completed the sponsorship phase of the initiative process by collecting more than 1,000 verified signatures from registered voters to advance the measure toward the November, 2014 ballot. [40] The pairing "unified primary" was also advanced by Oregon's Attorney General in the draft ballot title for this initiative: "Changes Election Nomination Processes; Replaces Current Primary System With Unified Primary For All Candidates." [41] Several variations of this measure have been filed to date: 2014 Initiative Petitions 38 and 51. [42]
The campaign did not collect the 87,213 signatures required to get Petition 54 onto the ballot. [43] (The "Open Primary" proposal that used plurality voting did collect enough signatures, but was defeated. [44] )
A 2022 ballot initiative sought to bring this system to Seattle (under the name "approval voting"). In June, volunteers for Seattle Approves had gathered the 26,000 signatures for Initiative 134 to qualify for the November ballot. [45] The initiative would be an open primary with approval voting, followed by a top-two runoff. [46] [47]
The city council then had the option to adopt the initiative immediately as an ordinance, put it on the ballot for voters to approve, or reject it and substitute it with a similar measure. [48] They chose the latter, with Andrew Lewis announcing a bill to put a two-round variant of instant-runoff voting on the ballot to compete against the initiative (under the name "ranked choice voting"), with support from FairVote. [48] Because Seattle law requires a top-two runoff, this system is actually an instant-runoff primary followed by a top-two runoff.
In the end, the ballot contained two questions, the first of which asked voters if they wanted to change the voting system at all, and the second of which asked voters to support either Approval (1A) or Ranked Choice (1B). Question 1 narrowly passed, with 51% support, while the more well-known RCV was favored in Question 2, with 76% support. [46]
Approval voting is a single-winner electoral system in which voters mark all the candidates they support, instead of just choosing one. The candidate with the highest approval rating is elected. Approval voting is currently in use for government elections in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, Fargo, North Dakota, USA, and in the United Nations to elect the Secretary General.
The two-round system, also called ballotage, top-two runoff, or two-round plurality, is a single winner voting method. It is sometimes called plurality-runoff, although this term can also be used for other, closely-related systems such as instant-runoff voting or the exhaustive ballot. It falls under the class of plurality-based voting rules, together with instant-runoff and first-past-the-post (FPP). In a two-round system, if no candidate receives a majority of the vote in the first round, the two candidates with the most votes in the first round proceed to a second round where all other candidates are excluded. Both rounds are held under choose-one voting, where the voter marks a single favored candidate.
Primary elections or primaries are elections that are held to determine which candidates will run for an upcoming general election. Party primaries are elections in which a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the country and administrative division, there may be an "open primary", in which all voters are eligible to participate, or a "closed primary", in which only members of a political party can vote.
FairVote is a 501(c)(3) organization and lobbying group in the United States. It was founded in 1992 as Citizens for Proportional Representation to support the implementation of proportional representation in American elections. Its focus changed over time to emphasize instant-runoff voting (IRV), a national popular vote, and universal voter registration. It changed its name to the Center for Voting and Democracy in 1993 and to FairVote in 2004.
An open primary is a primary election that does not require voters to be affiliated with a political party in order to vote for partisan candidates. In a traditional open primary, voters may select one party's ballot and vote for that party's nomination. As in a closed primary, the highest voted candidate in each party then proceeds to the general election. In a nonpartisan blanket primary, all candidates appear on the same ballot and the two highest voted candidates proceed to the runoff election, regardless of party affiliation. The constitutionality of this system was affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States in Washington State Grange v. Washington State Republican Party in 2008, whereas a partisan blanket primary was previously ruled to be unconstitutional in 2000. The arguments for open primaries are that voters can make independent choices, building consensus that the electoral process is not splintered or undermined by the presence of multiple political parties.
A nonpartisan primary, top-two primary, or jungle primary is a primary election in which all candidates for the same elected office run against each other at once, regardless of political party. This distinguishes them from partisan elections, which are segregated by political party. Nonpartisan primaries differ from the two-round system in that the second round is never skipped, even if one candidate receives a majority in the first round.
The Independent Party of Oregon (IPO) is a centrist political party in the U.S. state of Oregon with more than 140,000 registrants since its inception in January 2007. The IPO is Oregon's third-largest political party and the first political party other than the Democratic Party and Republican Party to be recognized by the state of Oregon as a major political party.
Electoral reform in the United States refers to the efforts of change for American elections and the electoral system used in the US.
Electoral reform in Alaska refers to efforts to change the voting laws in this U.S. state. U.S. Senator John McCain and other Republicans endorsed a referendum to implement Instant Runoff Voting, after the conservative vote split between the Republican candidate and the Alaskan Independence Party candidate, allowing a Democrat to win the governorship. However, the League of Women Voters opposed it, citing the principle of one man, one vote, and the measure was defeated. Another issue is whether Alaska will join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact and designate its three electors to the candidate winning the nationwide popular vote, rather than the winner of the state's vote. SB 138, a bill to do just that, was introduced in 2007, but was not approved.
Electoral reform in Colorado refers to efforts to change the voting laws in the Centennial State.
Ranked-choice voting (RCV) can refer to one of several ranked voting methods used in some cities and states in the United States. The term is not strictly defined, but most often refers to instant-runoff voting (IRV) or single transferable vote (STV), the main difference being whether only one winner or multiple winners are elected.
The 2009 Burlington mayoral election was the second mayoral election since the city's 2005 change to instant-runoff voting (IRV), also known as ranked-choice voting (RCV), after the 2006 mayoral election. In the 2009 election, incumbent Burlington mayor won reelection as a member of the Vermont Progressive Party, defeating Kurt Wright in the final round with 48% of the vote.
An electoral or voting system is a set of rules used to determine the results of an election. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections may take place in business, non-profit organisations and informal organisations. These rules govern all aspects of the voting process: when elections occur, who is allowed to vote, who can stand as a candidate, how ballots are marked and cast, how the ballots are counted, how votes translate into the election outcome, limits on campaign spending, and other factors that can affect the result. Political electoral systems are defined by constitutions and electoral laws, are typically conducted by election commissions, and can use multiple types of elections for different offices.
STAR voting is an electoral system for single-seat elections. The name stands for "Score Then Automatic Runoff", referring to the fact that this system is a combination of score voting, to pick two finalists with the highest total scores, followed by an "automatic runoff" in which the finalist who is preferred on more ballots wins. It is a type of cardinal voting electoral system.
The Center for Election Science is an American 501(c)(3) organization that focuses on voter education and promoting election science. The organization promotes cardinal voting methods such as approval and score voting. They have their early roots in effective altruism.
The Equal Vote Coalition is a nonpartisan American electoral reform group that advocates for voting methods including STAR Voting, Approval Voting, and Condorcet voting.
Mississippi state elections in 2020 were held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. Its primaries were held on March 10, 2020, with runoffs taking place on June 23.
Alaska Measure 2 was a ballot initiative approved by voters in Alaska as part of the 2020 United States elections. The proposal switched Alaska's primary system to a non-partisan blanket primary. The top four candidates progress to the general election, which is conducted with ranked-choice voting. Voting for U.S. president will continue to utilize primaries based on political party, but ranked-choice voting will still be used in the general election. The initiative also requires additional disclosures of campaign financing.
A final-four or final-five primary is an electoral system using a nonpartisan primary by multi-winner plurality in the first step.
2024 Colorado Proposition 131 is a proposed ballot measure that will appear before voters in Colorado during the 2024 general election. The citizen initiated proposition would replace Colorado's current partisan primaries with non-partisan blanket primaries and would implement ranked-choice (instant-runoff) voting for most statewide and state legislative general elections in which the top four candidates in the primary would qualify for the general election ballot.
We are excited to announce a shift in strategy as we join forces with Show Me Integrity: Reforming Missouri Politics in bringing Approval Voting to St Louis!
Schlichenmeyer ... is part of a movement to implement approval voting ... Originally, Schlichenmeyer and a group called St. Louisans for Ranked Choice Voting were pursuing ranked choice, or instant runoff, voting
can the voting machines actually do it? ... In the case of St. Louis and St. Louis County, the answer is no."
approval voting with a top two runoff is compatible with our current voting machines, while instant-runoff is not.
This Board Bill would repeal Ordinance 71410 Proposition D (Open, Non-Partisan Elections) in its entirety.
It allows the top two candidates in each of the partisan primary elections … to then compete in a Runoff Municipal Primary Election
