Ian Gilyeat: Independents Now Outnumber Democrats in Arizona

This e-mail came to me from Ian Gilyeat. Ian was an independent challenger to John McCain in the 2010 election:

Last week Ken Bennett, Secretary of State announced that Independent registered voters now outnumber Democrats across the state. This is noteworthy – and timely since I’m writing to you at this time to ask for your help…

Over the last three months I have been working with our state officials to fundamentally change the political landscape in Arizona. I can tell you it is a slow and uphill struggle. Although my request seems rational and reasonable, it appears our elected officials are more interested in protecting their power base than allowing one third of registered voters in Arizona to have equal access to the ballot box.

Specifically, I am seeking a sponsor for two bills: the first is needed to change the signature requirements for Independent candidates. You will recall the signature requirement for an Independent candidate is 3% of Independent or party not declared registered voters (click here for actual counts ). Party candidates require just 1/2 of 1%. This is a 6x multiplier. Considering the state is split almost equally between Republican, Democrat and Independent voters it is in the best interest of all voters to place Independent candidates on the same footing as party candidates.

The second bill is to eliminate the requirement that Independent candidates, those not in a registered party, must pay for access to voter registration rolls. Party candidates receive all registered voter records at no cost – they receive these voter lists for FREE – whereas an Independent must pay 1 cent per record or $31,000 for the full list of registered voters in the state.

After multiple attempts via telephone and email to reach Russell Pearce (beginning on Nov 22nd last year) I was only able to receive an answer from him when I approached him after he spoke at a local Tea Party meeting on January 10th. His response: no, he will not sponsor this legislation due to his new responsibilities as President of the Senate. He is however willing to support such legislation if another representative or senator will sponsor it.

Currently I am asking my local representative Eddie Farnsworth to sponsor these two bills and have been attempting to obtain a response from him since January 10th. To date – no response.

This is where you come in. Please call Representative Farnsworth at (602) 926-5735. His assistant Jan will likely be who you speak with. Please leave a detailed message with her if you are unable to speak with Representative Farnsworth. His email address is here: [email protected]. Jan opens and prints his email in order to assist him in responding to his constituents.

After you have contacted Representative Farnsworth, please call and email your local legislative representative and ask him or her to support this legislation. Also, ask him or her to contact Representative Farnsworth and inform him they will support the bill if he will sponsor the bills.

If you’d like to receive a copy of the letter I sent to Representative Farnsworth please send me a note. When I receive your note, in my reply, I’ll also attach a chart illustrating the growth of Independent or party not declared voters in Arizona over the past ten years.

I appreciate your consideration and help in supporting this important change. The people of Arizona are demonstrating their dissatisfaction with the major political parties in ever increasing numbers – by registering as Independents or party not declared. Their access to qualified candidates should not be curtailed because they do not want to be “in the party”.

Please join me in leveling the field by aligning the candidate selection process with the voice of the people – and include the one-third registered voters who are Independents.

Sincerely,

Ian Gilyeat
Independent

Gilbert, Arizona

P.S. Some of you may have connections to a State Legislator willing to sponsor these changes. If you do, please let me know and send their name, phone number and email. I’ll be happy to make contact and ask them to sponsor these changes. Many thanks!

Robert Winn August 22, 2011

Ian

You do not seem to be aware of what exists in this state government. I have watched it since 1988, when they first moved against independent voters by passing a House bill requiring that deputy registrars be recommended by the chairman of a political party. All deputy registrars in Arizona who were registered independent were dismissed. There were 200,000 independent voters in the state when that happened. I discovered the specifics of this action and made an effort to inform independent voters in the state of what had occurred. As a result, an independent voter in Glendale, Arizona, contacted me to get all the details and then filed a lawsuit seeking re-instatement of independent deputy registrars. Nothing further happened for a few years until that lawsuit was due to be heard in federal court. The Arizona Attorney General, Robert Corbin, evidently felt that the state could not win against that lawsuit because the next thing that happened was another House bill proposing that deputy registrars be eliminated altogether, which passed and became law, resulting in the open registration system we now have. I was not in favor of this because I had been one of the deputy registrars dismissed by the previous legislation. I believed that deputy registrars were necessary to have honest voter registration.
However, the open registration increased independent voter registration to a degree independent deputy registrars never could have. Arizona became the state with the fastest rate of independent voter registration in the nation. By 1998 there were enough independent voters to pass an open primary initiative.
Party politicians scrambled for a way to nullify the open primary. Arizona Attorney General Janet Napolitano provided the way. Move the Presidential Primary to February, she proposed, and she would provide an opinion that independent voters could not vote in the Presidential Primary because it was not specifically mentioned in the Open Primary initiative. Party leaders were hopeful that this would steer voters back into the parties. It did not happen. Citizens of Arizona continued to register independent.
By 2004 party leaders were becoming panicky. Independent voter registration was going exponential. So Republican leaders drafted an initiative that was supposed to stop illegal aliens from registering to vote, an opportunity they had created by getting rid of deputy registrars in the state to keep independent voters from becoming deputy registrars. When Proposition 200 was approved by the voters, it made it necessary to make a new voter registration form, and the real reason for Proposition 200 was accomplished, the removal of the option to register independent from the Arizona voter registration form. This caused the following change in independent voter registration.

2000-2002 107,715
2002-2004 165,771
2004-2006 26,384

This decrease in independent voter registration was not the windfall that party leaders hoped for. As citizens of the state learned that they could still register independent, independent registration began to increase again to its present level.
So where does that leave us?
Party politicians still have us blocked from being candidates for office or voting in elections we are required to pay for. I say that the best direction to go immediately is back in the direction of open primaries. Just start another petition to open the Presidential Primary. Once that is done, independent voters will have a sense of accomplishment once again and will come out of their state of depression and acceptance of party control. It will also increase independent voter registration in the state.
The great need is for independent voters to register as candidates for office. That is the first step to overcoming Arizona’s un-Constitutional nomination petition signature requirement. I do not believe it can be done through the legislature until Republicans are made to see that being opposed by independent voters is preferable to being opposed by Democrats. I would encourage you to register as a candidate again. Whoever is an independent candidate when the two-party use of the news media as a propaganda agency is broken has a good chance of being elected.

2 Comments

Don Lake, Give It back .......... August 22, 2011
so true, so true …………
Robert Winn August 22, 2011
Ian
You do not seem to be aware of what exists in this state government. I have watched it since 1988, when they first moved against independent voters by passing a House bill requiring that deputy registrars be recommended by the chairman of a political party. All deputy registrars in Arizona who were registered independent were dismissed. There were 200,000 independent voters in the state when that happened. I discovered the specifics of this action and made an effort to inform independent voters in the state of what had occurred. As a result, an independent voter in Glendale, Arizona, contacted me to get all the details and then filed a lawsuit seeking re-instatement of independent deputy registrars. Nothing further happened for a few years until that lawsuit was due to be heard in federal court. The Arizona Attorney General, Robert Corbin, evidently felt that the state could not win against that lawsuit because the next thing that happened was another House bill proposing that deputy registrars be eliminated altogether, which passed and became law, resulting in the open registration system we now have. I was not in favor of this because I had been one of the deputy registrars dismissed by the previous legislation. I believed that deputy registrars were necessary to have honest voter registration.
However, the open registration increased independent voter registration to a degree independent deputy registrars never could have. Arizona became the state with the fastest rate of independent voter registration in the nation. By 1998 there were enough independent voters to pass an open primary initiative.
Party politicians scrambled for a way to nullify the open primary. Arizona Attorney General Janet Napolitano provided the way. Move the Presidential Primary to February, she proposed, and she would provide an opinion that independent voters could not vote in the Presidential Primary because it was not specifically mentioned in the Open Primary initiative. Party leaders were hopeful that this would steer voters back into the parties. It did not happen. Citizens of Arizona continued to register independent.
By 2004 party leaders were becoming panicky. Independent voter registration was going exponential. So Republican leaders drafted an initiative that was supposed to stop illegal aliens from registering to vote, an opportunity they had created by getting rid of deputy registrars in the state to keep independent voters from becoming deputy registrars. When Proposition 200 was approved by the voters, it made it necessary to make a new voter registration form, and the real reason for Proposition 200 was accomplished, the removal of the option to register independent from the Arizona voter registration form. This caused the following change in independent voter registration.
2000-2002 107,715
2002-2004 165,771
2004-2006 26,384
This decrease in independent voter registration was not the windfall that party leaders hoped for. As citizens of the state learned that they could still register independent, independent registration began to increase again to its present level.
So where does that leave us?
Party politicians still have us blocked from being candidates for office or voting in elections we are required to pay for. I say that the best direction to go immediately is back in the direction of open primaries. Just start another petition to open the Presidential Primary. Once that is done, independent voters will have a sense of accomplishment once again and will come out of their state of depression and acceptance of party control. It will also increase independent voter registration in the state.
The great need is for independent voters to register as candidates for office. That is the first step to overcoming Arizona’s un-Constitutional nomination petition signature requirement. I do not believe it can be done through the legislature until Republicans are made to see that being opposed by independent voters is preferable to being opposed by Democrats. I would encourage you to register as a candidate again. Whoever is an independent candidate when the two-party use of the news media as a propaganda agency is broken has a good chance of being elected.

Comments are closed.