Louisiana primary


The so-called Louisiana primary is the common term for the Louisiana general election for local, state, and congressional offices. On election day, all candidates for the same office appear together on the ballot, often including several candidates from each major party. The candidate who receives a simple majority is elected. If no candidate wins a simple majority in the first round, there is a runoff one month later between the top two candidates to determine the winner. This system is also used for United States Senate special elections in Mississippi and Texas, and all special elections for partisan offices in Georgia. It is also used for municipal elections in Portland, Oregon.

Comparison with other voting models

The Louisiana primary is similar to the nonpartisan blanket primary currently used in Washington and California since in both models, all candidates regardless of party identification run against each other in the first round. However, the top two system does not elect a candidate in the first round, but merely advances the top two candidates to the general election. The timing of the two systems is also different. The first round in the Louisiana primary is held on or near election day in November and the runoff is about a month later, while the top two primary holds the second round on election day in November and holds the first round months earlier. The Louisiana primary is an example of the two-round system.

Example: Louisiana governor's race, 1991

First Ballot, October 19, 1991
CandidateAffiliationSupportOutcome
Edwin EdwardsDemocratic523,096 Runoff
David DukeRepublican491,342 Runoff
Buddy RoemerRepublican410,690 Defeated
Clyde HollowayRepublican82,683 Defeated
Sam JonesDemocratic11,847 Defeated
Ed KarstNo Party9,663 Defeated
Fred DentDemocratic7,835 Defeated
Anne ThompsonRepublican4,118 Defeated
Jim CrowleyDemocratic4,000 Defeated
Albert Henderson PowellDemocratic2,053 Defeated
Ronnie Glynn JohnsonDemocratic1,372 Defeated
Ken "Cousin Ken" LewisDemocratic1,006 Defeated

Second Ballot, November 16, 1991
CandidateAffiliationSupportOutcome
Edwin EdwardsDemocratic1,057,031 Elected
David DukeRepublican671,009 Defeated

Despite Republicans collectively attaining a majority of the support in the 1st ballot, the Democratic candidate Edwards won decisively on the second ballot. A factor in this seemingly anomalous result may have been tactical voting, which has been observed in some two-round electoral systems. On the other hand, a major contributor to Edwards' markedly increased vote may well have been the fact that Roemer endorsed Edwards prior to the second round. Additionally, Roemer had originally been elected to the governorship as a Democrat, having only changed his party affiliation in 1991. Under this system, party label is self-identifying, which means that David Duke was able to declare himself a Republican candidate without the consent of the Republican Party. Edwin Edwards' win is most likely attributed to the fact that David Duke was a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and thus was unpalatable to mainstream voters, in spite of allegations of corruption during Edwards' first three terms. Evidence of this exists in the unofficial campaign slogan "Vote for the Lizard, not the Wizard." Another bumper sticker cited by The Wall Street Journal is: "Vote for the crook, it's important." Polls had shown that Roemer could have defeated either Edwards or Duke if he had made it to the second round.

Party labels

The runoff sometimes includes two candidates of the same party, a phenomenon which frequently occurs. Historically, the Democratic Party was dominant in Louisiana from the late 19th through much of the 20th century, especially after the state legislature disenfranchised most blacks at the turn of the 20th century, weakening the Republican Party.
The only party labels originally permitted under the Louisiana law were Democrat, Republican, and No Party; however,, candidates may take the identity of any "registered political party". The primary has been used in statewide elections since 1975. The system was designed by then-Governor Edwin Edwards after he had to run in two grueling rounds of the Democratic Primary in 1971 before facing a general election against a well-funded and well-rested Republican, Dave Treen..

Federal elections

The nonpartisan blanket election was never used for presidential primaries in Louisiana because national party rules forbid it. It has been used for congressional elections from 1978 to the present, with a brief interruption in 2008 and 2010.
Starting in 1978, the Louisiana legislature changed the rules for conducting US House and Senate elections, changing them to the nonpartisan blanket primary format, with primaries in late September or early October, and general elections on the federal election day in November. Any candidate who received the required "50 per cent plus one vote" in the primary, or was unopposed in the primary, was declared elected and did not appear on the general election ballot.
The U.S. Supreme Court in Foster v. Love ruled that this system was in violation of federal law when used for congressional elections, since the federal law requires all members of Congress to be elected on the federal election day; thus, candidates who won in primaries earlier than the federal election day violated this law.
After the decision, Louisiana moved the congressional primary date to November and the run-off to December in order to keep the nonpartisan blanket format. The result was that any candidate who won a congressional race through a general election lost seniority to those members elected in November on the national election day. Louisiana's freshmen members were assigned inferior office space because they were junior to members elected in November.
In May 2005, Louisiana passed a law moving the primary back to October, with provisions intended to follow federal law. In June 2006, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco signed Senate Bill No. 18 into law, which took effect in 2008. It returned Congressional races to the closed primary system.
In 2010, the legislature voted to revert federal elections to the nonpartisan blanket primary system with the passage of House Bill 292, which was signed into law by Governor Bobby Jindal on June 25, 2010. Since Louisiana's primary is virtually identical to the Washington state primary system, which was upheld by the US Supreme Court in Washington State Grange v. Washington State Republican Party, it appears to satisfy constitutional concerns.