- IDAHO: Ring worries about GOP split-closed Repub primary will alienate independents (Idaho Press)
- It ain't Hillary-Chris Matthews cites only 25% indies are for her (Townhall)
- Status of Pending Lawsuits Filed by Minor Parties, Independents (Ballot Access News)
- Upper-income black donors back Obama over Clinton (USA Today)
- Black community leader backs Clinton in Florida (Chicago Tribune)
- OHIO: Judge's race field might shrink-if officials declare that Parker or other independent candidates aren’t truly “independent.” (Cincinnati Enquirer)
- NEW JERSEY: Coffey heats up Township Committee race in U.F., Planning Board member files to run as independent (Freehold Examiner)
Thursday, June 14, 2007
TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS
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2 comments:
Chris Bowers is leaving MyDD and starting a new blog with Matt Stoller:
"So, why am I moving on? I hinted at the reason in yesterday’s post, Expanding Beyond Just Partisanship. As much as I have enjoyed writing about politics and elections from a partisan Democratic viewpoint, my political background is in the social justice movement and decidedly on the left. I want to write about more than just elections and political infrastructure, and I want to explicitly work toward building a progressive governing majority. "
Stoller and Bowers are two of the smartest independent Democrats out there, and I hope we extend them our hand.
Independent voters were established in the United States by the writing of the Constitution. Political parties are self-created societies which exist for the purpose of securing special rights and privileges in government to their maembers. There were no organized political parties in the United States government until the election of 1800 when a political party took over the government. They wasted no time in passing laws at state level to exclude and limit participation of independent voters. Independent voters exist in the government today not because political parties allow them to exist, but because political parties have been unable to eradicate them in spite of their best efforts.
In 1988 the Arizona legislature passed a law requiring that deputy registrars in Arizona be recommended by the chairman of a political party. Accordingly, on December 31, 1988, all independent voters who were serving as deputy registrars were sent a letter informing them that they could no longer serve in that position. An independent voter filed a lawsuit seeking re-instatement of independent deputy registrars. To nullify that lawsuit, the legislature met and passed a bill doing away with the position of deputy registrar, allowing any person to go to their County Recorder, obtain voter registration forms, and register voters. In 2004, leaders of the Republican Party in Arizona circulated an initiative called Proposition 200 because, they said, illegal aliens and convicted felons could register voters. When Proposition 200 was passed by the voters it required the state to make a new voter registration form. There was only one real change in the new voter registration form other than instructions requiring identification to be shown at the polls, etc. The box marked No Party Preference was taken off from the form, leaving only a space marked Specify Party Preference. A Party spokesman now in the state committe of his party has boasted in a newspaper interview that the purpose of this change was to stop a rapid increase in the number of independent voters in Arizona which took place between 2000 and 2004. Now, he said, people were registering as Democrats and Republicans.
A group of independent voters brought this violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to the attention of the state Attorney General. His response was, "Discuss it with your state legislator."
We are therefore going to register a petition with the Secretary of State on July 5th to recall the Attorney General. The state of Arizona requires a period of six months in office before a state official becomes eligible for recall. His present term of office began on January 5, 2007.
We are going to register voters, including those who support the Attorney General, in our petition drive. The percentage of registered voters in the state is somewhere around 50% of those eliglble to vote.
Anyone who wants more information about this recall petition drive please contact
Independent voters
P. O. Box 1445
Maricopa, Arizona 85239
e-mail rbwinn3@juno.com
Robert B. Winn
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