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EMIL
FRANZI |
Paperwork 'default' may be behind rise of 'independents'August 29, 2007 |
The latest voter
registration numbers for Arizona are in, and it seems
“independents” now outnumber both major parties by 53
percent to 47 percent. There are mechanical reasons for
that as well as disdain for the two major parties.
No doubt both Democrats and Republicans are in trouble with all voters. While the President’s favorability index hovers around 30 percent, one recent poll had the Democratic Congress down to 14 percent. Twelve percent believes Elvis is still alive. Still, not quite as bad as Israeli Prime Minister Ohmert. On a 600-person sample survey he registered only 3 percent, which was lower than the margin of error. There is a reason beyond partisan dissatisfaction for high independent numbers. More than half of the independents, at least in Pima County, are actually classed as NOP for “no organized party.” As the Greens and Libertarians are organized, I thought about a quarter of the electorate registering “Tupperware” and “Whig” was a bit much. Turns out it is. Pima County Voter Registrar Chris Roads explained “NOP” voters are those who failed to put anything in the block on the voter registration form marked for political party choice. State law does not require one be made. Some of those marked NOP are in fact DEMS and REPS and probably a few LBTs and GRNs who simply didn’t fill in the line. Anyone registering with a real non-organized party is classified as a Communist or Federalist or whatever they chose. This is a direct result in the change in the voter registration system some years back that allowed for self-registration. Previously, a deputy voter registrar signed up a voter. MVD workers and others, usually from the political parties and duly sworn in and rudimentarily trained, were the principle sources of new voters. They would see to it all blocks were covered. Interestingly, the now-obsolete reason for having voters write the party preference themselves was to prohibit zealous partisans from slipping in the choice for them. Most of the NOPs would probably pick a block if they were simply given the normal run of choices including “other” and “independent.” California had and may still have the choice “decline to state,” which I always thought was the ultimate for weenies. What probably drives non-partisan registration up even more is the ability extended by a craven GOP legislature and their egalitarian Democratic allies a few years back that opened both major party primaries to independents and NOPs. This helped contribute to the slow suicide of both parties by making them even more irrelevant in declaiming how little they really thought of themselves by allowing anybody to pick their candidates. I recognize some other states have done this for years, but that hardly justifies it. The GOP types mostly supported it because they were worried an even worse version would get on the ballot. Successfully fighting dumb ballot propositions has never been a Republican strong suit. Democrats either were dazzled by it or more likely were pandering to goody-two-shoes editorial writers at the mainstream dailies who slobber over this stuff. On Feb. 3, Arizona will join 20 or so other states in a cheap attempt to bag a few advertising bucks and candidate appearances by holding an earlier presidential primary. Big problem: The same statute that sets up primaries for all other offices in September doesn’t cover this primary. Per the Republican National Committee, GOP registration is mandatory for participation in the presidential choice. (Democrats are looser — in other ways, too.) Because the GOP legislative leadership and the Democratic minority didn’t think about housekeeping, some legit Republican voters who didn’t fill out all of a form will be denied access to their party’s presidential nominating process. A simple change mandating a check-off block for party choice will help solve it in the future. And a little more thought and less panic on the part of all legislators would be a big help, too.
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BUT WATCH WHAT YOU SAY! |
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