Some General Consequences of California's Top-Two Primary System

2016/01/01 by Benjamin Highton, Robert Huckfeldt, Isaac Hale · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Business, Management and Accounting · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Political Influence and Corporate Strategies #Media Influence and Politics

paper · pdf · doi:10.5070/p2cjpp8230564

openalex publication_date 2016/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11

Abstract

This paper analyzes some of the general election consequences of the top-two primary system in California elections beginning in 2012. In particular we focus on general election contests between candidates of the same party that were not possible under the previous primary system, but have occurred with some regularity with the top-two. We find that same party elections are characterized by greater competitiveness, lower turnout, and less—but still substantial—polarized voting.

Citations

• Voter Behavior in California’s Top Two Primary
• Why Voters May Have Failed to Reward Proximate Candidates in the 2012 Top Two Primary
• Open primaries and crossover voting
• A Primary Cause of Partisanship? Nomination Systems and Legislator Ideology
• The Ideological Mapping of American Legislatures
• Strategic Voting in Open Primaries

Cited by

• Nonpartisan primary [wikipedia]

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• Voter Behavior in California’s Top Two Primary
• The Top-Two, Take Two: Did Changing the Rules Change the Game in Statewide Contests?
• Participation and Competition in Top-Two Elections: Trade-Offs in Election Reform
• Do Open Primaries Improve Representation? An Experimental Test of California's 2012 Top‐Two Primary