For generations, African Americans have been politically connected to the Democratic Party. Find out how that is changing and who is leading the way.
Independent groups
CUIP is motivating, training and supporting an activist network of independent leaders who are building throughout the country.
AL, Independent Alabama
AZ, Independent Voters of Arizona
CA, IndependentVoice.Org
CT, Independent Party
DE, Independent Party of Delaware
FL, Florida Independentvoting.org
GA, Georgia Independent Voters
GA, iMove
IA, Independent Voters of Iowa
ID, American Independent Movement
IL, United Independents of Illinois
KY, Independent Kentucky
MA, Massachusetts Coalition of Independent Voters
MD, Independent Movement of Maryland
MI, Grand Valley State College Independents
MS, Committee for Open Primaries
NC, North Carolina Independents
NH, New Hampshire Independent Voters
NM, Independent Voters of New Mexico
NV, Independent Voters of Nevada (IVON)
NY, New York City Independence Party
OH, Independent Ohio
PA, Independent Pennsylvanians
SC, Independence Party of South Carolina
SD, South Dakota Voice of Independents
TN, Independent Tennessee
UT, Utah League of Independent Voters
VA, Virginia Independent Voters Association (VIVA)
WI, Wisconsin Group for an Independent Voice (WiGiv)
Welcome New Visitors. This is an exciting and challenging time for independent voters and for the independent movement. Independents are now 40% of the electorate. Polls show that 41% of college students consider themselves indies as do 35% of African Americans under the age of 30.
Independent Voters Applaud GOP Retreat from Effort to Close South Carolina Primaries.
IndependentVoting.org, a national association of independent voters and a defender of South Carolina's open primary system, cleared an important hurdle last Friday, when the South Carolina Republican Party withdrew from a lawsuit to close the state's primary elections. Read more.
The 2013 National Conference of Independents took place on Saturday, February 16, 2013 at NYU's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. Over 400 independent voter activists attended the day long conference which opened with this video tribute to their work publicizing the need for nonpartisan structural reform of America's political process in local and national media over the last 2 years. CSPAN coverage here. Slide show here.
Politics for the People, was founded in 2002 by Cathy Stewart as a free educational series for independent- minded New Yorkers. On April 27th, she hosted this dialogue with former Congressman Mickey Edwards, IndependentVoting.org President Jackie Salit and a live audience, on the topic of The Parties vs. The People. The event was broadcast on CSPAN May 3rd and 4th and is can be viewed online here.
Wisconsin and California election analysis. By Harry Kresky, Esq. The Wisconsin recall campaign was, in many respects, a story about the past -- the century-long clash between labor and capital, which surely has a 21st-century post-modern form, but is nonetheless still framed as a battle between competing ideologies and organized interests. Is there a way out of that deadlock?Read more
Top Two Open Primaries Initiative on the Ballot in Arizona.
Congratulations to Arizona's Open Elections, Open Government Coalition for filing over 365,000 petition signatures (259,000 required) with the Secretary of State to put a top two nonpartisan election initiative on the ballot in November. Despite it's defeat in the election, the initiative was quite controversial and a precursor for things to come. The initiative survived a legal challenge after the state supreme court overturned a lower court ruling, saying that the citizen initiative is in
compliance with the Arizona Constitution and should move forward to the November ballot.
Independentvoting.org submitted an Amicus Brief. The Arizona League of Women Voters , one of the initiators of the suit, had published a "Pro/Con Report," which was largely a "con" statement. Independentvoting.org director of national organizing Nancy Ross and lead counsel Harry Kresky and Ted Downing of Arizonans for a Top Two Primary responded to the report in an Open Letter to the League.
Listen here to Independentvoting.org President Jackie Salitin an interview with Communications Director of the Morrison Institute for Public Policy on Top-Two Proposition: What Nonpartisan Elections Could Mean for Arizona.
Pew
Research
Center
Beyond Red vs. Blue
Independents are not Moderates. Pew Research Center released a survey last month which was encouragingly called “Beyond Red vs. Blue.” Encouraging, that is, for the growing number of Americans eager to find a way out of the partisanship which has come to dominate public policy making at nearly every level of government. Read more
Did Independents Make a Mark in Iowa? By Jackie Salit, Huffington Post. Click Here.
Jackie Salit appeared on "FOX & Friends" where she gave an independents perspective on the budget negotiations.
Salit's view that the budget crisis further exposes the need for structural political reforms, have recently been echoed by Mickey Edwards inThe Atlantic and Fareed Zakaria in theWashington Post .
"Ours is a system focused not on collective problem-solving but on a struggle for power between two private organizations."
"What we tend to see as historic are the dramatic, the explosive--as the world bears witness to events unfolding accross North Africa and the Middle East. Historical transformations, however, take (and have taken) other forms--less perceptible in their intensity, with equally uncertain outcomes."
—Dr. Omar Ali
California Open Primary Initiative Passes. Over two million voters cast a “Yes” vote for Proposition 14 and against partisan politics. As a result, the 3.4 million "Decline to State" independent voters will have equal access to the political process. Read the full statement from the California association for independents.
No issue has more popularity among independents than open primaries. Open primaries allow all voters, regardless of their party affiliation, to participate in each round of voting. Learn more about the fight open primaries in the video below.
Urge President Obama to Fill Vacancy on FEC with an Independent. The call for President Obama to appoint an independent to the FEC is getting louder. In December, the New York Times published a letter to the editor from IV.org president Jackie Salit and attorney Harry Kresky in which they responded to a Times editorial, "The Election Sabotage Commission." Read their letter here. And here to read the letter sent to President Obama by IndependentVoting.org and contact the White House and your Senators.
On February 12, 2011 hundreds of independent movement activists from 40 states gathered at a national conference in New York City to discuss that question.
The 2011 National Conference of Independents was sponsored by IndependentVoting.org and hosted by its President, Jackie Salit who delivered this dynamic multi-media keynote address available on DVD with bonus features. Click to receive your copy
