Independent Voters Want a Chance to Choose

By KARI FORD

Independent voters and advocates for open primaries on Thursday demanded reform of theNew York State election system Thursday to include the 3.2 million voters who are registered as independent and cannot vote in the upcoming presidential primaries.

Included among those millions is New York State Assemblyman Fred Thiele, the only independent of the 213 members of the New York State legislature.

“New York State has some of the most archaic voter laws in the entire country,” said Thiele, “I can vote to make the laws for you — I just voted on a 155 billion dollar budget for the people — but next Tuesday, I won’t be able to vote in the presidential primary.”

Thiele has introduced legislation that would permit anybody registered to vote, even if not enrolled in a party, to vote in the presidential primary. Though the measure would not go into affect in time for Tuesday’s primary, he is confident that it will pass by the 2018 election.

“We have our hands tied when trying to make our voices heard,” said AliAkbar M. Hassonjee, an undergraduate NYU student. “As a student, I can offer a perspective directly from the point of view of a millennial. We’re entering a voting system that we have always been told was a basic and fundamental right, but that’s actually exclusionary, and has refused to evolve with the changing times. One in three millennials are independent or third party voters in this state. It’s time for politicians to realize that they are alienating an entire population of voters if they refuse to give us an equal seat.”

Another independent voter who is a Sanders supporter echoed this view.

“If you were an independent and you wanted to register to vote and register to be a Democrat to fall in line with these ridiculous rules, you had to register in October, and not everyone knew that,” said Laura Delhauer, 29, a transplant to Brooklyn from California. “March 25 was when we had to have registered to vote, but if you wanted to change parties, you had to do it in October. So many people were told in March that they couldn’t re-register, that they should have done it six months ago.”

Also disenfranchised for not following the arcane rules were Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s daughter and one of his sons, observers noted.

Jacqueline Salit, President of IndependentVoting.org, started the fight 15 years ago, when she stood beside then mayoral candidate Michael Bloomberg at his first press conference with about 100 independents.

“We said no one should be forced to join a political party,” she said. “That is un-American, that is un-Democratic.”

“This is an issue whose time has come,” concluded Salit, “This is a movement that is not going away.”

Photo of Assemblyman Fred Thiele addressing supporters by Kari Ford