Over the last 100 years, the political system has developed so that parties, and not people, control the outcome of the elections. From gerrymandering to ballot access laws, independent-minded voters and candidates have been systematically shut out of the political process. This section focuses on electoral reforms that can help re-shape our elections into the representative democracy it was meant to be.
Americans Elect has failed to come up with a single independent presidential candidate for its online convention set for June.
In previous years, registered party members received a ballot that listed only the names of candidates from their party. Independent voters received a ‘non-partisan’ ballot, which was limited to the initiatives and non-partisan candidates.
At 11am PST, the Independent Voter Project and the Independent Voter Network went live from San Diego to announce the details of the unprecedented Independent Voter Survey.
Independent voters in certain districts across California will be sent ID codes that allow them to vote in an Independent Preference Survey prior to the June 5 primary election.
Proposition 14 and Open Primaries represent the spirit of democracy and our republican form of government, which makes the partisan motivations of those in opposition to the change in rules, suspect.
Third parties provide hope for independent voters, but the two-party system fears candidates like the Libertarian Party’s Gary Johnson.
Commentators throw around the word ‘Independents,’ for instance, as if it signified some sort of political monolith, rather than a diverse array of perspectives from across the political spectrum.
In 2012, independents will outnumber one of the major parties in 12 of the 53 Congressional districts, 10 of the 40 Senatorial districts, and 22 of the 80 Assembly districts.
A Ron Paul delegate shares her experiences from the Colorado GOP state convention last month, and reports on the Republican Party’s internal divisions.
Though the public’s confidence in the federal government has plummeted to record lows over the course of the last decade, the same cannot be said for state and local government.
