Blog

Arizona should stop punishing voters for choosing to be independent

Posted by Cathy L. Stewart on April 23, 2024 at 12:39 PM

Opinion: It's needlessly difficult in Arizona to vote and run for office as an independent. This ballot initiative would treat all voters the same.

By John Webster and TJ Lindberg

Originally published April 12, 2024 on azcentral.com

At the heart of American democracy is the basic right to vote. This treasured privilege has been earned through struggle and is the very foundation of our freedom.

It is the right on which all other rights hinge. 

With a combined 40 years of military service, we stand alongside many other brave Americans devoted to upholding the principles of freedom and fairness. Beyond a history of service and love of country, as many as 6 in 10 veterans proudly call ourselves independent voters.

In Arizona, systemic barriers entrenched within our electoral system are designed to disenfranchise voters like us and prevent candidates who genuinely reflect our interests from getting on the ballot. These obstacles disproportionately complicate veterans’ ability to have a say in selecting the future commander-in-chief. 

Independent voters face too many barriers

A person walks inside Burton Barr Central Library in Phoenix to vote in the Arizona primary election on Aug. 2, 2022. (Antranik Tavitian/The Republic)

Requiring independent voters to re-register with a party simply so we can exercise our right to vote in elections we pay for contradicts the very act of disassociating from a party that no longer reflects our values. 

Moreover, independent candidates are subjected to significantly higher signature requirements — up to six times more signatures than Republican or Democratic candidates — unfairly hindering their ability to qualify for the ballot.

Even if a candidate overcomes these hurdles their name will not appear on primary ballots, like R and D candidates, but instead will only appear on the general election ballot.    

Veterans have sacrificed a great deal for us. Is it fair to deny them the freedoms enjoyed by the parties they don’t identify with and expect them to sacrifice more to participate in the primary elections their taxpayer dollars pay for?

Our system should facilitate and make the opportunity to vote or run for office open to everyone. 

Change requires courage.

But we’re all too familiar with the candidates that benefit from preserving status quo. The ones that prioritize party allegiance over what’s best for their country.

It's time for Arizona to Make Elections Fair

It’s time we put the nation’s interests above party politics and reignite the spirit of cooperation and teamwork that has historically fueled our country’s success.  

The Make Elections Fair Act ensures every American can cast a vote that upholds their values without compromise by:

  • Treating all voters equally by allowing them to automatically vote in every primary election for any candidate they want. 
  • Treating all candidates equally by creating a single open primary election where all candidates for a given office appear on the same ballot and have the same signature requirements. 
  • Restricting taxpayer money to only elections that are open to all voters and candidates, not private party elections. 

Our democracy thrives when every citizen’s voice is heard.

Let’s treat all voters and candidates equally. Join the fight for fair elections in Arizona.    

Learn more at makeelectionsfairaz.com. Where to sign a petition: www.makeelectionsfairaz.com/signapetition.

Former Lt. Col. John Webster served in the U.S. Air Force for 20 years. Former Lt. Col. TJ Lindberg served in the U.S. Army from 1995 to 2015, including tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Reach them at [email protected] and [email protected]; on X, formerly Twitter: @jawbeaver and @TravisLindberg7. 

My Take: The duopoly of our two-party system

Posted by Cathy L. Stewart on April 17, 2024 at 3:06 PM

Opinion by John Gutekunst

Originally published Mar. 21, 2024 to Parker Pioneer.net

Pioneer File PhotoJohn Gutekunst - Pioneer File Photo

On March 19, Arizonans went to the polls to decide who will be on our state’s ballot for President of the United States. However, not all Arizonans could vote in this Presidential Preference Election. Only registered Republicans and Democrats could vote, and they could only vote for the party they are registered with.

This election was paid for by the taxpayers. Yet, the largest bloc of voters in this state was not allowed to participate:  Independents. According to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office, in July 2023, there were 1,444,953 registered Republicans in Arizona and 1,252,360 Democrats. However, Independents and others totaled 1,459,432. There are more Arizona voters registered as Independents than there are registered Republicans or Democrats.

Arizona is now a “purple” state where it was once a reliably “red” state.

If a state election, funded by our tax dollars, bars so many Arizonans from participating, how can it be seen as fair or a reflection of the will of our state’s voters? The sad fact is it can’t.

A few weeks before the 2022 midterm elections, a pair of election observers from Europe paid a visit to La Paz County. They met with Elections Director Bob Bartlesmeyer and Recorder Richard Garcia. They were eager to hear about the election process in our state and county.

They said the biggest thing that surprised them was how the parties’ candidate selection process was paid for by the taxpayers. This includes not just Presidential Preference Elections, but partisan primaries as well. They said that, in Europe, the candidate selection process is paid for by the parties’ themselves.

This is something all Arizonans should think about, especially when so many Arizona voters are barred from participating in the Presidential Preference Election.

I think this all shows the duopoly that the Republicans and Democrats have over the candidate selection process in all elections except those local elections that are non-partisan.

There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution about political parties. In fact, the founders appear to have not liked the idea of parties. Yet, we have this partisan duopoly mostly due to state law, tradition and custom.

When you have so many people who are disgusted with both parties, as we do now, you have only the most partisan people who remain in those parties. That’s how President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump became the front-runners in the race for President. They reflect their parties, not the desires and needs of the American people.

I’m not the only one who’s saying this:  in a nation of 330 million people, these two can’t possibly be the best candidates we can find for the highest elected office in the land.

I’m thinking we need an entirely new system, one that relies on the people rather than the parties for selecting candidates. One suggestion I’ve heard is holding an open primary with candidates from all parties on the ballot. The top two candidates face each other in a general election.

That’s one possibility. I’m sure there are others out there.

If I may be permitted to be silly for a moment, I suggest we do away with the election for President. Everyone who gets enough signatures on a petition will be taken to a large field in Kansas, Texas or Iowa. They will each be given a big pile of manure to sling at each other. Whoever can stand the smell the longest wins.

I know most people would say this idea stinks.

Seriously, it looks like we’re stuck with the partisan system we have. That’s because the very people who could change it and make it more reflective of the will of the American people are the same people who benefit the most from keeping the system as it is.

That appears to be a problem with a whole host of issues. The people who could most effectively make change are the same people who benefit from keeping things as they are.

I don’t know who said it, but it certainly applies here:  “The more things change, the more they remain the same.”

What Surging Numbers of Independent Voters Could Mean for This Fall’s Election

Posted by Cathy L. Stewart on April 15, 2024 at 12:03 PM

What Surging Numbers of Independent Voters Could Mean for This Fall’s Election

From coast to coast, and in crucial swing states, independent voters are making their voices heard and will have an outsize role in 2024 and beyond.

By Scott Klug - Originally posted April 4, 2024 on USAnews.com

Getty Images - Independent voters are an increasingly influential bloc in the U.S.

If the Republican and Democratic parties were stocks, you might want to call your broker and dump them. Across the country, the growing number of self-identifying independents should be rattling the two major parties.

Ground zero for the movement is the American Southwest. Throughout most of 2024, independents were the largest bloc of registered voters in Arizona (now just a hair behind Republicans). The same is true for neighboring Nevada. But perhaps nowhere is this more true than among voters under 30 who are often disgusted with both major parties.

Kevin Kansas is an Arizona State University student who is a proud independent, he tells me, “because the Republican Party and the Democratic Party are constantly fighting all the time.”

He thinks there is an interesting political stew in the region, which breeds independents. Older conservative retirees are moving in, though California’s liberal still culture has a strong influence. Meanwhile, generations of Latino voters and Mexican Americans are straddling both parties – and many are not happy with either.

That said, some political pros aren’t buying the spike. They include Mike Murphy, co-director of the Center for the Political Future at the University of Southern California, who is also a former senior strategist for the 2000 presidential campaign of notorious political “maverick” John McCain.

“Independents,” Murphy says, “are just closet Republicans and Democrats who don’t want to admit they are Republicans or Democrats. Put them in a room together to talk about issues and a fight breaks out within minutes. They can’t describe what they want to be for.” Self-described independents, he contends, are actually “leaners” and will eventually predictably vote with one party or the other.

Interestingly, the political science program at ASU in Tempe has a specialized center for the study of independent voters. And its co-director, Thom Reilly, says that campaign operatives have it wrong. In any given election, independents might lean to one party, but over time, they really are free agents.

“They are hard to typify. Some of them are leaners. Some of them are clueless. Some of them are anti-party, right?” he notes.

Reilly points out that, in the 2012 election, independents across the country voted for Barack Obama, pivoted to Donald Trump in 2016 and then opted for Joe Biden in 2020.

“To understand independent voting, you have to look at voting patterns over time,” says Reilly. “They’re unpredictable. They’re all over the place.”

I think many of these people belong to the more than 2 in 5 American voters who I describe in my podcast as “political orphans.” They are unhappy with both parties which they say are dominated by the extremes and characterized by visceral hate for each other.

Middle-aged Phoenix residents Mike Johnson and Julie Goldammer had a long journey from party loyalists to independents. She was the Democrat and he the Republican.

Today, they are beyond frustrated with the current state of our politics. They’ve lost friends over election outcomes and recoiled over family fights during holiday dinners.

“It's getting really old at this point,” Goldammer says. “I'm respectful when people want to bring up issues and their positions. I have had some real estate clients call me a snowflake, because I said something to them in a weird way about something political. And I was like, ‘What did you just call me?’”

To be clear, the Southwest is not an exception. In fact, it’s just one data point.

Let’s jump to New England, where New Hampshire voters have a reputation as cantankerous and unpredictable. New Hampshire election law doesn’t have a registration option for independents, but it does have an “unaffiliated” option. Today, roughly 40% of the state’s voters opt for that designation.

In the recent New Hampshire presidential primary, such unaffiliated voters cast 70% of the votes for Nikki Haley.

However, no one should be surprised. In a recent Harvard-Harris poll, nearly 80% of independents want a choice other than Trump or Biden.

The results in November are likely to be razor-thin, and the election will be decided by a slim pool of voters in the usual swing states. This election season, independents will play an outsize role. Four years from now, they may even become the most powerful force in American politics.

It’s not too late to call your broker.