Last month, the Independent Party became a ballot-qualified party in Louisiana. It became a party by showing that over 1,000 voters are registered as members of the party, and by the state officers paying a filing fee of $1,000. The Independent Party has no connection to any third party in any other state. It is a centrist party. See this story. Thanks to Randall Hayes for the link.
The Independent Party of California tried to do exactly the same thing in California, but the California Secretary of State refused to even tell the California county election officials to provide a tally of how many Californians are registered in the Independent Party.
How interesting!
Alex Padilla has issues.
You will recall that Louisiana changed its laws to permit an Independent Party to be recognized.
California should permit a party to change its name, along with the registrations of affiliated voters. This would be a multi-step process:
(1) Party leadership proposes change;
(2) Members may propose alternatives;
(3) Membership votes on whether they want to change the name, and to what, by approval vote;
(4) If majority approve change, and majority approve top name, registrations will be changed;
(5) Registrants will be asked whether they want registration changed to new name.
(a) If new name is similar to old name, the alternatives will be: new name (default); or explicit other; or No Party Preference.
(b) If new name is distinct, the alternatives will be: new name, or current name (default).
A similar process should be conducted for “Independent” and similar names, including (Nonpartisan).
(1) Members may propose alternatives (eg California Independent, California Independence).
(2) Membership votes on which name they want to change to by approval vote.
(3) Alternative with highest approval is determined, after that is removed, second alternative, and so on is determined. Alternative must receive 100 votes to be used in next step.
(4) Registrants will be asked whether they want registration changed to new name, and which:
(a) The alternatives will be all names approved in Step 3, and No Party Preference (default).
Subsequently, any attempt by a new registrant to register as am “Independent” or “non-partisan” will be sent a followup, permitting them to make a different choice. Any non-response will be treated as No Party Preference.
Candidates with No Party Preference should be permitted to use: No Party Preference; Independent; or Non-Partisan when they appear on ballot. Candidates with preference for a so-called non-qualified party must use that when they are a candidate.
Louisiana appears to only publish registration numbers for Democratic, Republican, and Other which is a combination of the four recognized parties, other non-recognized parties, and No Party voters.
The online registration form does not have an option to choose Independent Party.
If the 56,000 registrants is correct, the Independent Party qualifies to have a Presidential Preference Primary (40,000 registrants).
That’s a good point, that the Independent Party has enough registrants for a presidential primary. If the law doesn’t change, that will bring about the first third party presidential primary in Louisiana history.
In October 2016 there were 56,599 voters registered in the Independent Party.