Today is primary day and 3.5 million Flori

Monday, March 29, 2010

Kresky: California Open Primary Proposition 14 Would Help Third Parties

"It's particularly disturbing that at a moment when millions of independents are knocking at the door of an electoral process from which they are excluded, Ralph Nader and the third party movement would want to slam it shut." (From independent attorney Harry Kresky in Sunday's Sac Bee)

What was Ralph Nader thinking? The sometime Green/ sometime independent Presidential candidate who garners less than a percentage point of the vote in 2000, 2004 and 2008 now wants to Stop the Top Two, the popular open primary initiative that will be on the ballot in California June 8.... Thanks to IPR for the heads up about Ralph.

OPEN PRIMARIES
PROPOSITION 14
THIRD PARTIES
  • Is the Time Ripe For Third-Party and Independent Bids? (By Stuart Rothenberg, Roll Call Contributing Writer, CQ Politics) Independent candidates for governor in at least three states, all of them in New England, are running serious races, and the number of credible non-major-party candidates could grow if Minnesota’s Independence Party nominates someone with serious credentials or personal resources.
OREGON
OHIO
  • Crossover voters to be challenged (By Mark Niquette, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH) Voters in Ohio don't pick their party affiliation when they register; it is determined by the party ballot they request in a primary. If they don't vote in primaries or vote only on issues, they are listed as unaffiliated. They are free to request a partisan ballot without question.
PENNSYLVANIA
  • Greta Browne -- Green Party platform reflects the common good (Morning Call) Reforms -- such as ranked voting (used in the Academy Awards) and open primaries (in Washington state and on the ballot this year in California) -- would allow third parties to garner the votes that represent the true popularity of their positions.
ALABAMA
RHODE ISLAND
TENNESSEE
INDEPENDENT YOUTH
  • Millennials do faith and politics their way (By Stephen Prothero, USA Today blogs) Politically, this same self-reliance drives young people into Unparties — outside-the-box movements such as the "Tea Party" (on the right) and the aborning "Coffee Party" (on the center-left). Whereas 25% of Millennials are religiously unaffiliated, 40% of registered Millennial voters refuse to call themselves either Democrats or Republicans.

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