A primary election is how the two options are selected. By having the general be a choice between two parties it reduces noise from splitting the vote. The primary election is how the candidates from each party are chosen.
Each state and party runs their own, so I guess it depends. In Washington State we made the primary election run the same as the general: there’s a list of candidates with party affiliations, and the two with the most votes progress to the general in November.
There’s 50 states, and they don’t all do it the same way. Each state has 2 senators, 1-52 representatives, etc. Then there’s national elections where a small pool of candidates is voted on by the entire country, but which names appear on which ballots and how depends on the county you’re voting in.
What are “primaries” and how do they supposedly change the options?
A primary election is how the two options are selected. By having the general be a choice between two parties it reduces noise from splitting the vote. The primary election is how the candidates from each party are chosen.
Are they rigged in any way?
Each state and party runs their own, so I guess it depends. In Washington State we made the primary election run the same as the general: there’s a list of candidates with party affiliations, and the two with the most votes progress to the general in November.
So you have 102 candidates, 2 from each state?
There’s 50 states, and they don’t all do it the same way. Each state has 2 senators, 1-52 representatives, etc. Then there’s national elections where a small pool of candidates is voted on by the entire country, but which names appear on which ballots and how depends on the county you’re voting in.
Damn, that’s a lot of layers of obfuscation.
No, you were just very confused and it’s a lot of assumptions to rethink.
Each county runs their own elections. It’s not obfuscated, it’s federated.
No, it is a lot of obfuscation. Thats what they’ve been trying to get you to realise.