by Terry of blog terryfaceplace – January 29, 2008
Did you know that in the state of California, a person who declines to state their political party when they register to vote has to ask for a Democratic ballot to vote for a Democratic presidential candidate in next weeks primary? Who knew? I had no idea.I know a good number of people who have changed their voter registration to “decline to state” in a sort of quiet protest expressing their disappointment or anger with the actions of the current Congress, but most of them would lean toward Democratic candidates, given the choice.
I know a few disgusted Republicans who can say the same. There are others who just see themselves as independent folks, and don’t want to affiliate themselves with any party. And really now, who can blame them for that? There’s also those who will swing to either party, and their votes have to be won, one way or another. But when all is said and done, DTS voters overall tend to be less engaged in politics, and are less likely to vote .
Today the NY Times weighed in on the difficulty in reaching “Decline to State” voters, and the possibility of those voters pushing one candidate or another over the top. . . or not.
[For the rest of this article, go here to terryfaceplace.]
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I disagree w/ the NY Times that “declined to state” voters are less engaged (Perhaps it serves their purpose to believe this). Every independent I’ve ever spoken to (and I’ve spoken to thousands) are independent because they don’t like how the political process is functioning and believe there are other ways of doing politics (Does that sound indecisive to you?) We’re seeing in the early open primary states that when indies are allowed to participate, politics as we know it are being turned upside down. Given how things have been going up until now, that’s a good thing, in my opinion.
Gwen
http://www.independentvoting.org