Elections Center
Primary Rules
See California primary election type, who can vote in primaries, and historical 2024 Democratic and Republican delegate allocation details.
Who Can Vote
California lists multiple primary classifications: Partially Closed: Democratic Presidential and Republican Presidential. Top-Two: Democratic State and Republican State. Eligibility can depend on the party, office, ballot type, and election cycle.
Partially Closed: Democratic Presidential and Republican Presidential. Top-Two: Democratic State and Republican State.
Primary rules can vary by party, office, and election cycle. Confirm your current ballot eligibility with state election officials, your local election office, or the relevant political party.
The delegate totals on this page are historical 2024 presidential cycle data. They help explain the last presidential allocation cycle but should not be treated as current-cycle delegate counts.
Primary Type
The Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act, which took effect January 1, 2011, created "voter-nominated" offices. The Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act does not apply to candidates running for U.S. President, county central committees, or local offices.
Delegates
2024 Democratic Delegates
The Democratic Party in California uses a proportional representation system based on the results of the Presidential Preference Election (Primary) for apportioning delegates to the Democratic National Convention. A Presidential Candidate must receive a 15% of...
2024 Republican Delegates
The Republican Party in California uses a Winner-Takes-Most system based on the results of the Presidential Preference Election (Primary) for apportioning delegates to the Republican National Convention. All 169 of California's delegates to the Republican...
Sources
Questions
California is listed with the following primary type classification: Partially Closed, Top-Two.
California lists multiple primary classifications: Partially Closed: Democratic Presidential and Republican Presidential. Top-Two: Democratic State and Republican State. Eligibility can depend on the party, office, ballot type, and election cycle.
California can list different classifications for presidential, state, congressional, Democratic, Republican, or nonpartisan contests. The page lists the model breakdown as: Partially Closed: Democratic Presidential and Republican Presidential. Top-Two: Democratic State and Republican State.
The model lists 497 Democratic delegate votes and 169 Republican delegate votes for the 2024 presidential cycle.
The delegate totals shown for California are historical 2024 presidential cycle data where listed. Confirm current-cycle delegate plans with official party materials or state election sources.
Use state election materials, party materials, and selected reference links where available. This page links to www.sos.ca.gov and www.ncsl.org - Primary Types.