Today is primary day and 3.5 million Flori

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Congratulations California Independents. Now, On to New York City!

Big win for independent voters all over America -- passage of Prop 14 in California. Congrats to Californians for standing up to the party bosses!! (Media analysis below) - NH


Jackie Salit, President – IndependentVoting.org, issued the following statement on the passage of Prop 14:

“Yesterday, California voters decisively passed Proposition 14, which creates a nonpartisan primary system across the state. Though the political parties – major and minor – opposed the measure, the voters defied the partisan establishment and gave Prop 14 54% of the vote. This is the biggest margin for a political reform initiative in California in over a dozen years. And it means the state’s 3.4 million independents can participate in every round of voting. Congratulations California! Now it’s New York City’s turn. We’re saddled with a closed primary system that locks out nearly one million independent voters. The message of California is that it’s time to put political calculus aside, to put nonpartisans on the ballot, and to let the voters decide what kind of electoral system they want to have.”
Jackie Salit is the President of IndependentVoting.org, a national association of independent voters with organization in 40 states. In addition, she ran Mike Bloomberg’s ’01, ’05 and ’09 mayoral campaigns on the Independence Party line. Press contact: Sarah Lyons, 212-962-1824


INDEPENDENT VOTERS
  • New Registration Numbers from New York and Nevada (Independent Political Report)
  • FUSION VOTING AND INDEPENDENT POLITICS (by Damon Eris, CAIVN.org) New York State is well known for its fusion voting system, in which the endorsements of minor parties are often actively sought by candidates for public office.  In 2009, when Independent Michael Bloomberg was elected mayor of New York City, it was the votes he received on the Independence Party's ballot line that provided him with his margin of victory over Democrat Bill Thompson.
PROP 14
SOUTH CAROLINA
NYC CHARTER REVISION
  • New life for nonpartisan elections in NYC (By GREG DAVID, Crain's New York) The mayor is sure to start beating the drum loudly again because a vote this November, with high turnaround for statewide and congressional seats, will bring out those centrist voters. If ever there was a time to empower the majority of voters in New York, this is it.
  • Charter Panel Eyes Advocate (By MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL, Wall Street Journal)

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