The Independent View: Independents Push for Congressional Hearings

From IndependentVoting.org:

Independents are American citizens who do not want to align themselves with either the Democratic or Republican parties. At 40 percent of all registered voters, our numbers are now greater than those who consider themselves members of either major party, in large part due to increasing public distaste for the partisanship that characterizes contemporary politics.

Americans value freedom and self-government, yet far too many of us who want to participate in the political process encounter barriers to change in the form of partisan election laws. Because of these barriers, millions of voters are locked out of participating in every level of our political process. We believe this situation warrants attention at the federal level and call upon Congress to hold public hearings on these structural barriers.

These particulars are a sample of the kinds of structural biases that pervade the electoral process, sometimes so commonplace that they are not noticed. Congressional hearings would shine a light on these inequities and begin to address these issues, all of which will help to revitalize our democracy, reduce partisanship, and accord full voting rights to a growing sector of the electorate – independent voters.

Use the above link to read the full Bill of Particulars.

Here are examples of what voters around the country are doing:

Massachusetts
After inundating Senator Scott Brown's office with postcards calling for Congressional hearings, the Senator met with leaders from the Massachusetts Coalition of Independent Voters (MACOIV). The Group - led by Evelyn Doughterty, Steve Savrann and Jill Klowden and joined by Independentvoting.org national representative Cathy Stewart - met with Jack Richard (Constituent Services Counsel) and Nat Hoops (DC Legislative Director) before they were joined by Senator Brown. The discussion with the Senator and his staff was very engaged, ranging from Top Two Open Primaries, to sore loser laws, and the fact that the Federal Election is comprised solely of Democrats and Republicans. The MACOIV team painted a compelling picture of the pervasive structural barriers that independents face. They pointed out that since 52% of Bay Staters (and 40% of the country) are choosing not to affiliate with the two major parties, opening up the process could have a significant and positive impact on partisanship. The Senator ended the meeting by promising to write a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee and is also considering pursuing other legislative remedies.

Ohio
Cynthia Carpathios, founder of Independent Ohio, met with Thomas Queen, Community Relations Coordinator and Heidi Matthews, Constituent Service Director for Rep. Jim Renacci. The three had a wide ranging discussion about partisanship and its impact on our inability as a nation to move forward. The staffers told Cynthia that the Congressman would be impressed that the changes being recommended were structural and that there wasn't a predefined notion of where they would take us. However, when Cynthia asked what they thought about supporting Congressional hearings, Queen commented that asking Congress to do something like this was like asking the fox to guard the hen house!

Florida
Duane Pike met with Congresswoman Cathy Castor at a community center in Tampa. Duane told Castor about his journey of becoming a leader of FloridaIndependentvoting.org and presented her with a packet which included: the Bill of Particulars, Letters to the Editor written by Florida activists, and letters sent by members of Congress calling for Congressional Hearings. He requested that the Congresswoman also write a letter.

Nevada
Catana Barnes and Dan Walton have been getting postcards signed in front of the public library in Reno, sending them to Senator Dean Heller and Congressman Mark Amodei. After collecting over 300 postcards and aggressively pursuing Amodei's staff for a number of months by email and phone, Catana is meeting with the Congressman in early August.

This issue will require federal and state law making.

So local independent voters will have to also contact their local state and city representatives, where a these changes will need to start the long road back to the "People's House".