Letter to the Editor

#IndependentVotersMatter

We are independent voters residing in Tucson and just a few among the 1.219 million independents in the state who will be barred from voting in the most important election in the country, the presidential primaries.  

Although independents are the largest community of voters in Arizona, having surpassed the number of registered Democrats and Republicans, we are currently excluded from voting in this election. That is wrong.  No American should have to join a party in order to have the right to vote. 

Thousands of Arizona voters, of all political affiliations, are calling upon the chairs of the Democratic and Republican parties in the state, to open the primaries and allow all voters to participate in our process. They have the power to do so.  Many states already allow independents to vote in the presidential primary and last month, the Democratic Party of Oklahoma took steps to do so also. These elections are publicly funded. To exclude the largest group of registered voters in the state amounts to taxation without representation and is undemocratic in the extreme.

—Mary Larik, Joshua Hubbard, Deborah Palmer and Agata Szwaykowska