Voting in the 2015 primary elections
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This page contains voter registration information pertaining to the 2015 primary elections.
While odd years are not normally associated with busy election seasons, there was still a lot going on at Ballotpedia. Ballotpedia covered state executive, state legislative and state ballot measure elections as well as municipal, school board, and local ballot measure elections. We also covered special elections as they were announced.
The average polling location was open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time on election day, but this varied by state. View our complete list of state poll opening and closing times here. Polls opened at noon at the latest and closed at 6 p.m. at the earliest.
State executive and legislative elections
Specifically, the primary dates below refer to when candidates were on the ballot for state executive and state legislative elections.
Five states held regularly scheduled primary elections in 2015. They were Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey and Washington.
The table below contains the following information:
- Primary date
- Type of primary
- Deadline for voters to register to vote
- Other notes
| Voting in Primary Elections 2015 Information |
|---|
| State | Primary Date | Type of Primary | Registration Deadline | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kentucky | 5/19/15 | Closed | 4/20/15[1] | |
| Louisiana | 10/24/15 | Blanket | 9/23/15[2] | |
| Mississippi | 8/4/15 | Mixed[3] | 7/3/15[4] | |
| New Jersey | 6/2/15 | Closed | 5/12/15[5] | |
| Washington | 8/4/15 | Blanket | 7/27/15[6] | 7/27/2015 was the last day for in-person registration; 7/6/2015 was the deadline for mail or online new registrations and voter updates.[6] |
Local and municipal elections
Ballotpedia covers elections in the top 100 cities by population and the top 1,000 school districts by enrollment. Only some of these elections have primaries, and some have a general election followed by a runoff election at a later date if one candidate does not receive a certain percentage of the vote.
Municipal elections
School board elections
School board highlights
The following chart lists the ten largest school districts that held elections in 2015:
| Largest school districts with 2015 elections | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| District | State | Date | Seats up for election | Total board seats | Student enrollment |
| Los Angeles Unified School District | California | 5/19/2015 | 4 | 7 | 659,639 |
| Houston Independent School District | Texas | 11/3/2015 | 4 | 9 | 203,066 |
| Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools | North Carolina | 11/3/2015 | 3 | 9 | 141,728 |
| Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District | Texas | 11/3/2015 | 4 | 7 | 107,960 |
| Northside Independent School District | Texas | 5/9/2015 | 4 | 7 | 98,110 |
| Albuquerque Public Schools | New Mexico | 2/3/2015 | 3 | 7 | 94,318 |
| Jeffco Public Schools | Colorado | 11/3/2015 | 2 | 5 | 85,793 |
| Fort Worth Independent School District | Texas | 5/9/2015 | 4 | 9 | 83,109 |
| Prince William County Public Schools | Virginia | 11/3/2015 | 8 | 8 | 81,937 |
| Denver Public Schools | Colorado | 11/3/2015 | 3 | 7 | 80,890 |
Special elections
Ballotpedia covered several special elections in 2015.
Congress
The following chart lists special elections to the 114th United States Congress as they were announced.
| District | Prior Incumbent | General Election Candidates | Election Date | Winner | Partisan Switch? |
| New York's 11th | Michael Grimm |  Daniel Donovan Vincent Gentile James Lane |
May 5, 2015 | Daniel Donovan |
No |
| Mississippi's 1st | Alan Nunnelee | Walter Zinn Boyce Adams Nancy Collins Trent Kelly Quentin Whitwell Chip Mills Greg Pirkle Daniel Sparks Mike Tagert Sam Adcock Ed Holliday Starner Jones Henry Ross |
May 12, 2015 | Trent Kelly |
No |
| Illinois' 18th | Aaron Schock | Robert Mellon Darin LaHood |
September 10, 2015 | Darin LaHood |
No |
| Ohio's 8th | John Boehner | Corey Foister Warren Davidson James Condit, Jr. |
June 7, 2016 | Warren Davidson |
No |
| Pennsylvania's 2nd | Chaka Fattah | Dwight Evans James Jones |
November 8, 2016 | Dwight Evans |
No |
| Hawaii's 1st | Mark Takai | Colleen Hanabusa Peter Cross Angela Aulani Kaaihue Howard Kim Javier Ocasio Shirlene Ostrov Alan Yim Calvin Griffin Yvonne Perry Peter Plotzeneder |
November 8, 2016 | Colleen Hanabusa |
No |
| Kentucky's 1st | Ed Whitfield | James Comer Sam Gaskins |
November 8, 2016 | James Comer |
No |
State legislative
Across the nation, special elections are frequently conducted to fill vacancies in state legislatures. A total of 25 states use special elections to fill legislative vacancies. In two states, Illinois and Indiana, special elections are used in limited circumstances. In 2015, 89 state legislative seats were filled through special elections in 27 states.
Municipal
School boards
- Tangipahoa Parish School System special elections (2015)
- St. Tammany Parish Public Schools special elections (2015)
See also
- 2015 elections
- Elections and events calendar
- Signature requirements and deadlines for 2015 state government elections
- Portal:Elections
Footnotes
- ↑ Kentucky election calendar, "2015 Election calendar," accessed January 20, 2015
- ↑ Louisiana Secretary of State, "2015 Elections," accessed January 20, 2015
- ↑ Mississippi is one of 21 states with a mixed primary system. Voters do not have to register with a party, but they must intend to support the party nominations if they vote in the primary election.
- ↑ Office of the Mississippi Secretary of State, "2015 Elections calendar," accessed January 20, 2015
- ↑ New Jersey Department of State, "Register to vote!" accessed January 20, 2015
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Washington Secretary of State, "Elections calendar," accessed January 20, 2015
