During August 2014, Mitt Romney filled out a new voter registration form in Holladay, Utah. He appears to have accidentally registered as an independent, by leaving the political party choice box empty. See this story, which has a picture of the form. He has since re-registered as a Republican. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
Unless I overlooked it on the form, I saw nothing which reads that a person who had not declared their political affiliation was automatically enrolled as a Independent.
I will take a 2nd look at it. But Romney would hardly declare himself as a Independent. Too bad, if he runs in and is nominated by the GOP in 2016, that he could not have a 2nd position on the ballot as a Independent. Be surprised how many extra votes he might get.
In all states, if a voter leaves the “party” question blank, the voter is classed as an independent.
Did not know that. It has been so long since I lived in a state where party affiliation (or lack thereof) was part of the registration process. As you know, in Alabama, no one registers by party or the lack thereof. You just simply register to vote, and then at the Primary Election can ask for which ever primary you wish to vote – sadly only two primaries are available in Alabama – Democratic and Republican.
Yes, and in the late 1960’s when I was an Alabama voter, the thing to do was to go vote in the Democratic Primary in the afternoon and then that evening go to the Republican convention and vote again there!
Gene: I don’t think I could in good conscience have done such, had I lived in Alabama in the 1960’s. To me, this is voting twice which is against the law.
However, in the late 1960’s Alabama still had fair election laws. A 3rd party could get on the ballot just by being organized. It was around 1982 or later when Alabama’s legislature starting requiring signatures on petitions. Since then, there have been few 3rd parties listed on the General Election Ballot.
This change was initially started by a Democratic controlled legislature, and is continued today by a Republican controlled legislature.
George Wallace was correct in 1968 when he said, “There is not 10cents worth of difference between the Democrats and Republicans.” He was, of course, referring to National Democrats and National Republicans. But today, I think such is true at least on the state level.