Independent Voter

10/09/2026

Nearly 65% of registered voters in Massachusetts are independent. Democrats make up 26%. Republicans, 8%.

Yet under the current system, the parties decide which candidates appear on the November ballot. And in many cases, they don’t even bother giving voters a choice.

60% of state House and Senate races this year have only one candidate on the November ballot. One name. No contest. Election over before most voters ever show up.

Former Gov. Deval Patrick (D) put it bluntly: politics today is less about red vs. blue and more about insiders vs. outsiders.

He joined former Republican Gov. Charlie Baker this week endorsing Question 3, which would replace party primaries with a single all-party primary where every voter sees every candidate, and the top two advance to November, regardless of party.

By endorsing the measure, Patrick and Baker are breaking with their parties, which are fighting to preserve the status quo.

The race is tight, and about 1 in 5 voters are still undecided. Get a complete breakdown of the measure, who supports it, who opposes it, and why (Link in the comments).

10/08/2026

What if ranked choice voting isn't confusing voters nearly as much as its critics want you to believe?

Opponents say voters can't handle ranking candidates. But the data tells a different story.

Research has found that more than 99% of ranked choice ballots in previous elections were accepted as valid.

So, here's the bigger question: Is ranked choice voting really too confusing for voters, or is it too threatening to politicians who benefit from the current system?

A new analysis challenges the so-called "confusion myth" and asks whether the problem is really the reform—or the people trying to keep the rules from changing.

👇 Link in the comments.

10/06/2026

Does the vice president understand how Alaska votes? Not "fully," according to JD Vance - a Yale Law School graduate who has also served in the U.S. Senate.

Speaking to reporters before flying to Fairbanks to campaign for Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Vance said Alaska's Senate race is competitive in red and blue years alike. He pointed to the state's politics and what he called its "weird" ranked choice voting system that he doesn't fully understand.

The remark comes four weeks before Alaskans vote on Ballot Measure 2, which would repeal the state's nonpartisan Top Four primary, ranked choice general elections, and the campaign finance disclosure rules voters approved in 2020. A similar repeal failed in 2024 by just 743 votes after a recount. President Trump has called the system "disastrous, and very fraudulent" and backed the repeal, and Sullivan supports it too.

Under the current system, every candidate runs on one primary ballot open to all voters, the top four advance, and voters rank them in November. Opponents of repeal warn that returning to party primaries could shut out the roughly 60% of Alaska voters who are registered as independents.

10/06/2026

Should you have to join a political party to vote in an election paid for by taxpayers? Not according to Iraq War veteran Paul Rieckhoff, who is now suing New York over its closed primaries.

Appearing on NewsNation, Rieckhoff said primaries are "the whole ball game" in New York. They run on public schools, public funding and public poll workers, but voters without a party can't take part unless they "resign" their independence and register as a Democrat, Republican or member of another party. He called the lawsuit the start of a national fight.

The federal case, Rieckhoff v. Berger, was filed in the Southern District of New York and asks whether the right to vote comes from citizenship or from party membership. Independent Veterans of America and the Independent Voter Project, which co-publishes IVN, joined as organizational plaintiffs along with Veterans for All Voters.

10/05/2026

What reforms do you want to see to end the race to the bottom that is partisan gerrymandering?

(Check out the story in the comments.)

10/05/2026

Do you think Voter ID could pass, in California???

IVP's latest poll, including interactive cross-tabs, linked in comments.

10/05/2026

The people funding your Congressman might also be funding your state legislator, your governor, and the judge on your state supreme court.

Until now, you'd need about 19 browser tabs open to make the connections.

Federal money lived in one database. State money lived in another. And the gap between them was where big donors could spread their influence across every level of government without most voters ever connecting the dots.

That wall just came down.

OpenSecrets has launched a free dashboard that puts state AND federal campaign finance data on one searchable platform. You can follow the money across congressional, gubernatorial, legislative, and judicial races, and filter it by industry, employer, geography, and donation size.

Republicans, Democrats, and independents all say there's too much money in politics. Now there's no excuse not to look at where it's coming from.

So here's the real question: If you could trace every dollar behind the people who represent you, would you like what you found? 👇

🔗 Full story in the comments.

10/02/2026

Does the right to vote derive from citizenship, or by joining a political party? That is the question.

Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans are suing New York over its closed primary system, arguing that independent voters are being denied equal voting rights in publicly funded elections.

10/01/2026

We agree.