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
This article appears in Dec 24-30, 2015.
Best letter to editor of the bunch.
Then hold your nose, pick a party and join it. Maybe you can improve one of them.
Or form a new party and get it on the ballot.
But the parties themselves get to choose which candidates they put on the ballot. That’s the whole point of parties.
Better yet, why was the law written this way?
bslap, I agree with you to the extent that the parties pay for their primary. To the extent the taxpayers pay for it, you are wrong.
You can change your registration at servicearizona.com with a driver’s license or ID by Feb 22nd 2016 to the party of the person for whom you want to vote. You can change back after you vote in the Presidential preference election, which is on March 23, 2016.