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Historic Facts and Figures: Primary Elections

• Turnout
• Highest Vote Totals for Candidates
• Most Candidates and Uncontested Primaries
• Close Elections
• Write-Ins
• Inconclusive Primaries and Special Nominating Conventions
• Lieutenant Governor
• Past Election Returns Results for primary elections are available on line from 1970 to the present .

Iowa established primary elections as the method for nominating candidates in 1907, and the first official statewide primary was held in 1908.  All primaries have been in early June, except 1966 and 1968 (September) and 1972 (August).

Turnout

The overall primary turnout record and the Republican record were set on June 7, 1994 when 13,418 Johnson County voters of all parties participated.  6,192 of these voters voted in the Republican primary, which featured a race for Governor between incumbent Terry Branstad and Congressman Fred Grandy.

The Democratic primary turnout record was set in 2006 with 11,066 voters.  The previous Democratic primary turnout record was set in 1990, when 8,995 Democrats voted in a contest which included a governor's race won by House Speaker Don Avenson.

The 2004 Democratic primary set a new record for a year without governor and statewide offices on the ballot with 8,675 Democratic voters.  The highest Republican turnout in recent non-gubernatorial years was in 1980; 3,694 votes were cast in the US Senate primary won by Chuck Grassley.

The Iowa Green Party set the record for a third party primary in Johnson County in 2002 with 48 voters. While voters may register as Greens and Libertarians as of January 1, 2008, those parties are legally considered "political organizations" and do not hold primaries. To earn full party status and hold a primary, a party must win 2 percent of the vote for president or governor each general election.

Low Turnout

The low turnout records are from years with no contested races.  The 2004 Republican primary turnout of 630 voters was the lowest in at least 40 years.  The 2002 Democratic primary total of 1,062 voters was the lowest since the June 1920 primary - held two months before the passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote.

Primary Turnout and Contests, 1984-present

* The 1986 total includes 410 no party voters who voted in Iowa City and Coralville bond issue elections held with the primary.  The no party voters received a ballot that included only the bond issue and no nominating contests.  State law has since changed, and ballot issues may no longer be combined with primary elections.

** The 1998 total includes 21 voters in the Reform Party primary (contested race: governor).

*** The 2002 total includes 48 voters in the Green Party primary (no contested races).

• Democratic: 8,025 for Attorney General Tom Miller in his uncontested 2006 race.
• Republican: U.S. Representative Jim Leach won 5,044 votes in 1994.  Leach was also unopposed.
• Third Party: Jay Robinson won 43 votes in the uncontested 2002 Green Party primary for governor.

The highest vote total in a contested race was set by Janet Lyness, with 7,423 votes in the 2006 Democratic primary for county attorney.

Most Candidates and Uncontested Primaries

Both parties have contested primary races in 2012.  However, unlike a city primary, a partisan primary election must be held even if no races are contested.  The 2000 and 2004 Republican primaries had no contested races.  Most Johnson County Republicans also had a ballot with no contests in 1984 and 1992 (the only contests those years were in one legislative district).

In 2002, for the first, and so far the only, time in history, there were no contested races on the Johnson County Democratic primary ballot.  Every previous Democratic primary in Johnson County, from 1908 through 2000, had at least one contested race.

The Iowa Green Party had no contested races in its one primary in 2002.

Most Candidates

The largest field of primary candidates ever was in the 1976 primary election.  15 candidates were simultaneously running in three separate contests for three Board of Supervisors seats:

• Ten Democratic candidates ran for two full-term seats.
• Two Republicans ran for the two full-term seats.
• Three Democrats ran for an unexpired term.

13 of these candidates appeared on the Democratic ballot.

The closest Johnson County primary in recent years was the 1998 contest for the Democratic nomination for county treasurer.  Tom Kriz defeated Pam Lenz Nielsen by 28 votes.

Write-In Candidates

To win a nomination as a write-in, a candidate must win 35% of the vote.  The last candidate in Johnson County nominated as a write-in was Bob Vevera in the 1988 Republican primary for sheriff.

If no candidate wins 35% in a primary, the primary is inconclusive and the political party must hold a nominating convention.  This happened in the 5th Congressional District in western Iowa in 2002, where four Republican candidates finished between 21 and 31 percent in a race for an open seat.  Steve King, who placed first in the primary, won the nomination at the convention and went on to win the November general election.

The last inconclusive primary in Johnson County was the 1964 Democratic primary for sheriff.  Harold Smith finished first in a six candidate contest, but only won 27% of the vote.  Maynard Schneider finished second with 24%.  Schneider was nominated at the convention and elected in November.

Parties may also nominate candidates by convention to fill ballot vacancies. The deadline is 81 days before the general election for legislative, statewide and federal offices (August 17, 2012) and 69 days before the election (August 29, 2012) for county offices.  Just after the 2010 primary, the Democratic state convention nominated Jon Murphy for state auditor.

Lieutenant Governor

Through the 1986 election cycle, candidates for lieutenant governor were nominated in the primary and elected, independent of the election for governor, in the general election.  It was thus possible for the governor and lieutenant governor to be from different parties.  This happened in 1986, when Republican Terry Branstad was re-elected governor and Democrat JoAnn Zimmerman was elected lieutenant governor.

In 1988, Iowa voters approved a constitutional amendment requiring the governor and lieutenant governor to run as a team.  The amendment took effect beginning with the 1990 elections.  Candidates for lieutenant governor no longer appear on the primary ballot, and are instead nominated by state party conventions after the primary.  So far, all such conventions have confirmed the gubernatorial candidate's chosen running mate.

Candidates for governor are not required to name running mates before the primary, and even if they do, the name of the running mate does not appear on the ballot.

In 1990, incumbent Lt. Governor Zimmerman initially filed to run for governor, but withdrew from the race after the withdrawal deadline, endorsed House Speaker Don Avenson, and agreed to be his running mate.  Avenson then won the primary (in which Zimmerman's name still appeared on the ballot).  Thus Zimmerman ran for re-election, on a ticket with Avenson, against incumbent Governor Branstad's ticket.

Prior to the 2006 primary, three candidates - Republican nominee Jim Nussle, Democratic nominee Chet Culver, and unsuccessful Democratic candidate Mike Blouin - each named running mates.  It was the first time any candidates for governor had named running mates before the primary since the Avenson-Zimmerman ticket of 1990.  Two other Democratic candidates, Ed Fallon and Sal Mohamed, did not name running mates.