Louisiana Voters:

What does "Unitary Primaries" mean?

http://www.co.collier.fl.us/elections/partyreg.htm (Says only in La.)

I was searching for information about when Louisiana primaries are held and while I found that information, I found little else about our voting processes.

Mostly what I want to know is, are we required to vote in the primaries according to specified party affiliation? Can an Independent vote Democrat in the 04 primaries? Is "Not specified" an option?

Please excuse my ignorance; they don't exactly teach us these things in school around here.

Everyone runs together on the primary. If someone gets over 50% he wins.

Otherwise, the top two winners regardless of party move onto the runoff. Then the winner takes office.

In Minnesota, we have a very high third party support (particularly in the last two governor's races).

All of the following would've had to go into a runoff:

Governor
Secretary of State
Auditor
Possibly Senate

All of these went to Repukes, and without the third party candidates, probably would've gone to the Democrats (especially the governor's race).

Prior to changing to this system, the state was firmly Democratic, as you had to be a registered Democrat to vote in the Democratic primaries where the real decisions were made. There was sort of a two-pronged attack made on this once-progressive state -- try to put all the Democrats in jail or at least get them tied up in court and also get these open primaries so the right-wing anti-abortion GOP extremists could get on the ticket. To see a state that once voted for the Longs vote in a David Duke supporter like Mike Foster...well...it really makes you wonder if the two party system has any value at all. In the interest of "fairness," we seem to have cut our own throats.




perhaps your third party system would do better but that isn't the situation here