Search Form
First, enter a politician or zip code
Now, choose a category

Kinds of Elections:

  1. General Elections - an election to fill public offices.
    • a. Open Primary - an election that permits voters to choose on Election Day the party primary in which they wish to vote. They may vote for candidates of only one party. (A blanket or "free love" primary is a type of open primary. In the voting booth you mark a ballot that lists the candidates for nomination of all the parties, and thus you can help select the Democratic candidate for one office and the Republican candidate for another.)
    • b. Closed Primary - the selection of a party's candidates in an election limited to registered party members. Prevents members of other parties from "crossing over" to influence the nomination of an opposing party's candidate.
    • c. Runoff Primary - if no candidate gets a majority of the votes, a runoff is held to decide who should win.
    • d. Presidential Primary - a primary used to pick delegates to the presidential nominating conventions of the major parties.
Election Vocabulary

Electoral College - A group of persons called "electors," selected by the voters in each state, that officially elects the president and vice president. The number of electors in each states is equal to its number of representatives in both houses of Congress.



Office-Block Ballot - A ballot listing all candidates for a given office under the name of that office; also called a "Massachusetts" ballot.

Party-Column Ballot - A ballot listing all candidates of a given party together under the name of that party; also called an "Indiana" ballot.

Split-Ticket Voting - Voting for candidates of different parties for various offices in the same election. For example, voting for a Republican for senator and a Democrat for president.

Straight-Ticket Voting - Voting candidates who are all of the same party. For example, voting for Republican candidates for senator, representative, and president.

Other Sources of Information:

Library of Congress Teaching materials for educating students on the electoral process.

United States Election Assistance Commission Resources for voters

Voting and Elections’s page on election processes

Skip to top

Help us stay free for all your Fellow Americans

Just $5 from everyone reading this would do it.

Thank You!

You are about to be redirected to a secure checkout page.

Please note:


Continue to secure page »

Back to top