Posted by John Fernandes on March 15, 2016 at 10:14 AM
This article was written by Mary Ellen Klas for The Miami Herald & the Tampa Bay Times.
As Florida voters head to the polls on Tuesday, an estimated 3.2 million registered voters -- about 27 percent of the 12.3 million total -- are shut out of influencing Florida's choice.
Independent or unaffiliated voters in Florida are not eligible to vote in the 2016 presidential primary -- unless they decided months ago to switch their voter affiliation and join one of the two dominant parties, and then vote in the partisan contests on April 15.
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Posted by John Fernandes on March 10, 2016 at 10:54 AM
This article was written by Mitch Perry for FloridaPolitics.com.
Florida’s current closed primary system means that the 3.25 million registered independents – roughly 27% of Florida’s voters, the fastest growing part of the electorate, are ineligible to cast their vote in the March 15th primary. As of Tuesday morning, over 690,000 Republicans and 541,000 Democrats have cast either in-person early votes or via absentee ballots. morning. In all, more than 1.2 million ballots have been cast, while just 23,000 independents have voted on other local candidates or issues on their respective ballots.
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Posted by John Fernandes on March 08, 2016 at 2:54 PM
This article was written by Russell Berman for TheAtlantic.com.
In modern politics, nothing brings people together more than talking about how far apart they are.
Twelve years ago, a speech denouncing political polarization thrust Barack Obama into the national spotlight, and that very premise will outlast him when he leaves the White House next January.
The American public is divided—over economic policy, social policy, foreign policy, race, privacy and national security, and many other things. A host of factors, from partisan gerrymandering to exclusionary party primaries, are driving them further apart. Here we break down those factors behind our polarized politics, along with some of the most common proposals to fix it.
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Posted by John Fernandes on March 08, 2016 at 1:50 PM
This article was written by Mark Funkhouser for Governing.com.
When Michael Bloomberg was mayor of New York City, Francis Barry was his chief speechwriter and director of public affairs, and he was deeply involved in Bloomberg’s various charter review efforts. Barry is clearly ticked that the political parties and the self-styled good government groups had defeated a proposal in 2003 to institute nonpartisan elections. He channeled that annoyance into a book. The Scandal of Reform uses New York City’s election laws and history of election reform as a starting point for a powerful, well-researched analysis that seems to me to refute every objection to nonpartisan elections.
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Posted by Adriana Espinoza on March 07, 2016 at 7:20 PM
This article was written by Christine Sexton for Politico Florida.
TALLAHASSEE — The group Open Primaries has released a poll it conducted among independent voters in Florida showing support for ending the state's system of closed primaries.
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Posted by John Fernandes on March 04, 2016 at 1:55 PM
This article was written by KPNX for Channel 12 News Arizona
They are the largest group of voters in Arizona but as of now they have no say during the presidential primary. We are not talking about Latinos or African Americans, white or the elderly, the group is independent voters.
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Posted by John Fernandes on March 01, 2016 at 5:44 PM
This radio piece ran nationally on NPR.
The biggest group of voters politicians will have to woo this November are the ones who often don't get a say in which candidates make it to the general election ballot.
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Posted by John Fernandes on March 01, 2016 at 2:35 PM
February 29, 2016—Open Primaries President John Opdycke appeared on Al Jazeera America with John Seigenthaler to discuss primary election reform and the impact a Top Two primary system will have on our democracy.
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Posted by Adriana Espinoza on February 25, 2016 at 2:10 PM
This radio piece ran nationally on NPR.
Voters who aren't part of any political party make up the biggest chunk of the electorate in Arizona. But they don't have many rights and they're trying to change that through grassroots pressure.
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Posted by Kellie Ryan on February 12, 2016 at 1:22 PM
This radio piece ran on KRWG, Public Media for Southern New Mexico and Far West Texas.
Open Primaries, a national leader on election reform, the group is working on a campaign to build support in the state House Judiciary Committee to approve HJR 12, the Open Primary Elections Constitutional Amendment. Edmundo Resendez spoke to former New Mexico State Representative and founder of New Mexico Open Primaries Bob Perls about the latest efforts in the legislature.
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