Citizenship: A Manual for Voters

by Emma Guy Cromwell

This does not require a knowledge to even read, only to be able to distinguish between the pictures of a rooster and a log cabin.

Nominations—Primaries.

Candidates in the United States are usually nominated either in a party primary or a nominating convention.

Primaries are conducted like elections. The name of the party running for an office is put on the ballot of his party with the names of others who have filed similar petitions. On the day set for the primary the voters go to the polls and cast their vote as at a general election. The candidate who receives the largest number of votes is the nominee of the party for that office.

Primaries cost more than conventions—they are like elections—you have to advertise extensively and meet the voters. In a few months the election follows and you practically go over the same.

Only the voters who can vote in the party primary are those who registered for the previous election as members of that party.

Certificates and petitions of nomination must be filed with the Secretary of State not more than seventy-five days and not less than forty-five days, before the day fixed by law for the election of the persons in nomination, also certificates and petitions are directed to be filed with the clerk of the county court not more than seventy-five and not less than forty-five days before the election.

The primary elections are conducted in the same manner as any other election.

The two methods of making nominations are by a caucus or convention system, and the primary election system.

The qualifications for a voter at a primary are the same as election. On the first Saturday in August each year from 6 o'clock a. m. to 4 o'clock p. m. there shall be held at the regular polling places in each election precinct a primary election for the nomination of candidates for office by political parties, to be voted for at the next November election. You do not register to vote in the primary, and a citizen not of age at the time of the primary, but will be twenty-one before the November election can vote in the primary.