The primary election came into use first in the area where the one-party system was strongest, the southern states, late in the nineteenth century, initially as a result of party rules and later as a result of state law. “The major purpose and effect of the primaries in southern states was to guarantee Democratic control of southern

General elections are the elections which decides the outcome for the candidate. In general election contests there is two-party competition for most legislative seats in most northern states, and in some years every seat will be contested. The outcome of general elections is partly dependent on national political trends. In a presidential election year the party of the winning presidential candidate usually gains state legislative seats; in the following midterm election that party usually loses seats. The larger the gain in a presidential year, the more seats may be lost in the next election.

politics” (Malcolm Olsen, pg. 89). Democratic leaders believed that public primaries would legitimate the nominees, settle differences before the general election, and reduce the power of opposition voters. The Democrats were concerned about opposition from both Republican candidates and third parties and about the possibility that such challengers would seek support from black voters.

Most of the states that were slow to adopt the primary or did not use it consistently were eastern or midwestern states with relatively high levels of two-party competition and strong party organizations, such as New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Indiana. When Connecticut adopted a limited form of the direct primary in 1955, no state remained that relied entirely on the convention system. In the last three decades a number of states have enacted laws changing the number of offices covered by the primary or the authority of party conventions to endorse candidates in the primary, but there has been no clear legislative trend toward either greater organizational control or greater popular influence in nominations. The laws of a number of states require or permit the political parties to hold conventions before the primary to endorse candidates; in some of these states no primary is held if no more than one can

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