Conversations on Arizona Independents

The Hankster received the following, reprinted in full, from independent activist Robert B. Winn in Arizona:

As things stand here in Arizona, the news media continues to say that people here are still registering independent in large numbers after being sent the correct statistics that since 2005 independent voter registration has dropped from 80,000 per year to 13,000 per year. Actually, this serves a good purpose even though the news media has chosen to cover up for party politicians because it informs people in Arizona that they can still register as independent voters even though the voter registration form tells them that they must register as members of political parties. The reason why independent voter registration dropped by almost 70,000 per year was because when people look at the voter registration form it tells them they have to be members of political parties.

My assessment of the situation is that political parties will never be able to get rid of independent voters. What they will continue to do is to claim that independent voters are not interested in government because they do not run for office and do not vote as often as party members. They never mention the fact that they have prevented independent voters from being candidates by disproportionate nomination petition requirements in any states where independent voters are viewed as a threat. Here in Arizona I have to get 20,000 signatures to get on the ballot as a candidate against Governor Janet Napolitano; she has to get 4,000 signatures to be on the ballot. Federal District Court has consistently held that this is fair and Constitutional. So since party members never see any independent candidates, they believe independent voters are uninterested in government. Then any they do see are eccentric billionaires who have enough money to buy ballot access or party mavericks who raise campaign money as party candidates and then use it to buy ballot access as independent candidates, such as Lieberman just did in Connecticut. While it is good that independent candidates of some kind do exist, these people do not really represent independent voters. Independent voters are voters who just want to be registered to vote without endorsing some great party agenda. This is how all voters in the United States originally registered to vote. All voters in the United States until the election of 1800 were independent voters, which is why there are still independent voters today.

The propaganda that comes from political parties is a poor reflection of European politics and has nothing to do with the United States. The two-party system is written into English law. What party politicians say about two-party government here pertains to England, not to the United States. When a party loses a vote of confidence in England, the government dissolves and an election is held, as just happened to Tony Blair. When a party loses a vote of confidence in America, an unpopular President continues on with his unpopular policies for another two years, as George W. Bush is now doing. This does not mean that America has a worse system than England has. It means that the American system was not intended for political party control. The only way to break out of the political stalemate that now exists is through independent voters, the people who are registered to vote the correct way.

Independent voters will eventually control the government in America again just because party politicians are so incompetent. In the meantime, party politicians will use every dishonest practice, every unfair advantage, every form of deception, and all of the money from public revenues they can get their hands on to try to retain the political power they now have. With political parties trying with everything they have to stop independent voter registration, independent voters now outnumber members of either political party. All we need to do is keep the pressure on at certain places, especially on the party-controlled news media. Here in Arizona we did a couple of things with the news media. Having the experience of being shut out when independent deputy registrars in the state were dismissed in 1988, we went directly to the Capitol Press Corps with the information when we discovered that the option to register independent had been removed from the Arizona voter registration form. They, of course, ignored that information. We then registered a petition to recall State Attorney General Terry Goddard. Members of the Capitol Press Corps contacted us by phone inquiring about the reason for this petition. We re-informed them about the change in the Arizona voter registration form.

"Do you really think that you can get 370,000 signatures in 120 days to recall the Attorney General,' they asked.

"No," we said. "We just registered the petition so that you would call and ask about it."

Then every time an article about independent voters appears in the Arizona news media publications, we send the editor of that paper the correct statistics for independent voter registration obtained from the Secretary of State and tell them that the news media has just as much ability to obtain these correct statistics as independent voters do, so there is really no reason for them to be publishing party propaganda the way they do. We have freedom of the press here in Arizona. They can print the truth if they want to.

Actually, they cannot. Reporters from various newspapers have tried to write stories about this change in the Arizona voter registration form, and their editors will not let them do it. So then they come back saying they will give us an opportunity to be in this or that column if we will write it ourselves.

"No, thank you," we say. "If you do not want to print the news, go ahead and print party propaganda. It is your newspaper. We sent you the correct information."

Now I do not want to give the impression that there are a large number of independent voters doing this. Most independent voters in the state still do not even know they have been taken off from the voter registration form. The news media is paid by the two major parties to try to keep it that way. It does not really matter if they do. Every time they write another story about independent voters registering in large numbers, citizens of Arizona are informed that they can still register independent with the voter registration form that says, Specify Party Preference. According to statistics, independent voter registration is already back up to 40,000 per year. We do not mention that in our correspondence with the news media. Their cover-up of the illegal actions of party politicians in this state is backfiring in a big way.

What we would like to do in Arizona is what we did to get the attention of party politicians back in 1986, go to college campuses and register voters, which really started this whole chain of events. I think we will be doing this before the election happens. It will be interesting to see what the parties do this time. They are sort of running out of options here. I do not think they are ready yet to try to stop an election.

Robert B. Winn