IVN Editorial BoardDoes the right to vote derive from citizenship, or upon joining a political party?
The Supreme Court has never answered this question. But it is the question being asked in eight states at once: independent voters are suing to open closed primaries in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Wyoming, while the parties sue to shut open ones in Texas and South Carolina.
Ballot measures are moving in Massachusetts, Florida, and Colorado — and in California, party insiders are trying to repeal the state’s own nonpartisan primary and replace it with the old closed primary system.
Ultimately, the Supreme Court will have to settle the question: If primary elections are an important part of our public election process, can any state exclude voters from participation because they exercise their first amendment right NOT to join a political party?
And as IVP's legal strategist lays out this week, this is an issue that creates unusual coalitions, on both sides of the issue.
Coincidentally, or not, a former Republican is now the great hope of Maine's Democratic Party. Not coincidentally, IVN's own Cara McCormick was the first to predict how and when he would replace the disgraced Graham Platner.
Check out more stories that go outside the two-sided narrative below.
FEATURED ▶▶▶
The Voting Rights Case That Could Turn Both Parties Against the Supreme Court
Does the right to vote in a decisive, taxpayer-funded election come from citizenship, or from party membership?
POPULAR ON IVN ▶▶▶
LATEST EPISODE ▶▶▶
Independent Voter Podcast
The Independent Voter Podcast digs into Troy Jackson — the Maine logger and former Senate president running to become the first real working-class voice in the U.S. Senate — plus the election-integrity flashpoints brewing in California and New Jersey.
CALIFORNIA ▶▶▶
Kevin Kiley Left the Republican Party Over Gerrymandering. Now He's Testing Whether an Independent Can Beat the Map Drawn to Defeat Him.
Kevin Kiley walked away from the Republican Party over the gerrymander — and now he’s running as an independent in a CA-6 redrawn specifically to defeat him. If he wins, the only independent in the House will have proven the label can beat the map.
GOING VIRAL ▶▶▶
Ana Kasparian Rips Newsom’s Crime Record — ‘A Complete and Utter Disaster’
Is the sharpest criticism of Gavin Newsom’s crime record now coming from the left? In a clip that has racked up over 100,000 views, Young Turks host Ana Kasparian called Newsom’s leadership in California “a complete and utter disaster” on CNN — pointing to four prematurely closed prisons, packed county jails, and a May budget that initially proposed zero new dollars for voter-approved Prop 36. Watch the clip, then read Cara Brown McCormick’s full story on IVN.
NEW: Join the Conversation
Now, when you sign-up for an account on IVN, you can help frame, change, and inform the discussion. In fact, you can submit your own news stories, as long as you follow the simple IVN Etiquette.
SIGN UP NOW