Daniel Bush - October 19, 2018
PHOENIX, Ariz. — Tim Castro’s cellphone was blowing up. President Donald Trump had just mocked Christine Blasey Ford at a campaign rally, questioning her sexual assault allegation against Judge Brett Kavanaugh. It was early October, and Kavanaugh’s fate remained in doubt, the final Senate vote still days away.
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Jerod MacDonald-Evoy, The Republic | azcentral.com - March 26, 2019
Chandler voters will decide on city leaders this year, but some worry independent voters aren't getting a fair shake.
Here's why:
Chandler and many other Arizona cities will hold elections in August that coincide with statewide primary races. To vote in the partisan state races, voters must decide whether they want a Republican or Democratic ballot. Independent voters on the early voting roster do not automatically get primary ballots sent to them like committed Republicans or Democratss. They must reach out to clarify which ballot they want.
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By Jacqueline Salit Special to the Star - October 15, 2017
Politics in America have always been seen through the prism of the two parties, even when challenges to those parties have arisen. If disruptions in that two-party fabric at the end of the last century came in the form of renegade outsider presidential candidates such as Ross Perot and Ralph Nader, the 2016 presidential elections brought massive voter rebellions inside the major parties. As gridlock, partisanship and dysfunction persist, we might ask ourselves, what comes next?
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Opinions
John Barrow - October 1, 2017
The U.S. Supreme Court is slated to tackle one of the most divisive issues in election law: partisan gerrymandering. The June announcement that the court will review the problem in a case from Wisconsin has caused some to wonder: Do we really want the Supreme Court to decide how partisan is too partisan?
This misstates the problem. The question is not whether the courts should decide how partisan is too partisan. It is how to make it possible for voters to decide that for themselves.
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September 24, 2017
Independent voters want electoral reform that provides equal access to both sides of the ballot — for candidates and for voters. Last weekend the League of Women Voters of the Greater Verde Valley in Sedona and the American Association of University Women in Flagstaff held forums to learn more about independent voters. In our state and in our nation, registering without a party affiliation is increasingly popular. Nationally, 44% of registered voters are independent, and 34% of Arizonans are. This might be bad for political parties, but it could be great for American democracy.
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Cathleen Decker - August 4, 2017
Reporting from Phoenix — In Arizona, where the Great Recession cut a deep swath through home prices and shook all facets of the economy, voters are now increasingly buoyant about the fiscal future they envision for themselves and the nation.
They’re saving their ire for politics and politicians.
Amanda Melcher of Independent Voters for Arizona, testified today before the Arizona State Legislature Election Committee on the systemic failures of last Tuesday's presidential primary election. Below is her full testimony.
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Yesterday's Presidential preference election in Arizona was marred by long lines and wait times for voters prompting Gov. Ducey to go on record about the fiasco: "One way we can fix things is to simplify them,” he said, in a statement. “That means allowing independents to vote in presidential primaries, just as they vote in all other Arizona primaries. A big part of yesterday's problem was registered voters showing up, and being told they couldn’t vote. That's just wrong. If people want to take the time to vote they should be able to, and their vote should be counted." Below is a statement issued by Tim Castro and Jacqueline Salit on the election.
Jacqueline Salit is author of Independents Rising and president of IndependentVoting.org, a national association of independent voters seeking full inclusion in elections. Here she offers commentary on the suspension of the operation by the Arizona Open and Honest Elections coalition to secure ballot access for two political reform initiatives for the November ballot.
Read more"Here we are," began Patrick McWhortor in his remarks at the joint press conference sponsored by Open Primaries Arizona and Independent Voter of Arizona, "On the day when 1.2 million voters in Arizona are being told that the only way they can participate in the most visible election in the country, the nomination of someone to serve in the highest office in the land, is to undermine their commitment to being independent by requiring them to change their voter registration to a political party. This is the most sweeping voter suppression effort we have seen in recent history in America – the deliberate exclusion of independent voters."
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