TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

REFORM

• Our president should support more direct democracy (By Joel S. Hirschhorn, Online Journal)
• SEIU: It's Time for Real Redistricting Reform (California Majority Report)
• Phil Power: It's time to amend the constitution (Livingston Daily - MI)
• State reform bid nears ballot (Detroit News)
• Alabama Ballot Access Case Filed (Ballot Access News)
• Another Illinois Constitutional Ballot Access Case Filed (Ballot Access News)

LOCAL INDEPENDENT NEWS

• MN: Barkley, U.S. Senate candidate, wants to fix 'broken' system (Echo Press)
• NC: Editorial: Expanding debate (Salisbury Post - NC) Third-party candidates often find themselves in a Catch-22 situation.

NEW YORK POLITICS/INDEPENDENCE PARTY
Goetz Is Thrown Off Independence Ballot (By Jonathan P. Hicks, NY Times/City Room)

SWING VOTE

• It’s hard to make a good political comedy without being political (The Virginian-Pilot) While it goes for warm chuckles rather than big laughs, it flip-flops as obviously as current, and past, political candidates. It has no guts. It avoids saying anything critical of either party and takes no stand.
• "Swing Vote" (Salon) [the daughter Molly] after asking him what his party affiliation is, she crisply informs him that he's registered as an independent, because "the two-party system has neglected the needs of the working poor."

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS
Kenric Ward: More voters declare their independence (TCPalm -Treasure Coast/Palm Beach FL) According to the latest figures from the state Division of Elections, a smaller percentage of Floridians call themselves Democrats than they did eight years ago (44.3 percent in 2000; 40.7 percent in 2008). So where are the voters going? Independent parties and non-partisan affiliation.

REFORM
WA: New primary election rules make voting better (Tri-City Herald) The change should come as a relief to the many independent voters who cringed every time they were forced to use the "pick-a-party" format.
LA: Competition for Congress is intense (Houma Today The Courier - LA) Return of party primaries
OR: It’s a communist plot (LETTER Albany Democrat Herald - OR) Phil Keisling and open primaries: trying to have communistic doctrine made state law.
SC: Aiken to vote on nonpartisan races (South Carolina Bureau, Augusta Chronicle) Mr. LeDuc said Aiken is one of only six cities in the state that still hold partisan elections.

NEW YORK POLITICS/INDEPENDENCE PARTY
NOTE: Both the venerable New York Times and the somewhat less than venerable New York Sun gave space yesterday to a New York City Independence Party Board of Elections filing for State Committee by Bernie Goetz (remember the guy who shot 4 unarmed black youth on a subway back in the '80s?). Goetz filed 2 signatures in an attempt to get on the ballot to run against long-time independent leader Fred Newman, the primary tactician of the independent movement here in New York and nationally. (Goetz won't make the ballot -- you need 117 to get on....) Read here:

Bernard Goetz Vying for Independence Committee Seat (Special to the NY Sun) * Goetz Enters Independence Party Race (By Jonathan P. Hicks, NY Times/City Room)