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About Independent Voters for
Colorado (IVC)
Links TALK/TALK -- The free weekly e-publication for independents. |
What are we doing now? IVC is connected to a national campaign working on congressional hearings into the inequities of independent voters YOU can get involved with this important step in demanding equal rights.
IVC was formed in July 2009 by independent County Commissioner Joelle Riddle after she became increasingly frustrated with the narrow scope and vision upheld by parties and their ownership of elected officials. In an effort to better represent her constituents and the complex issues facing her community, she changed her affiliation from Democrat to unaffiliated or independent. Shortly thereafter, she discovered the inequitable ballot access law that led to the federal lawsuit challenging the statue that is currently being appealed by State Representative Kathleen Curry. About IVC We are a statewide strategy, communications, and organizing center working to connect and empower those in the state of Colorado who identify themselves as independent or unaffiliated voters. We hope to increase the number of independent elected officials and candidates who run for office in an effort to offer more dynamic leadership choices to the voters of Colorado. Our mission is to develop an independent coalition of voters for progressive post-partisan reform of the American political process focused on the state of Colorado. We do not aspire to create another party. Independents seek instead to diminish the regressive influence of parties and partisanship by opening up the democratic process. IVC will work to create new electoral coalitions that will support new models of nonpartisan governance and will strive for the broadest forms of “bottom-up” voter participation. Currently there are 1.1 million independent or unaffiliated voters in the state of Colorado and that number is only expected to grow. With that growth, the barriers that limit independent participation have become even more glaring. FAQs What barriers do independents face? Closed primaries, which exclude independents from the crucial first round of voting, is one major structural obstacle to a vigorous democracy. (See www.OpenPrimaries.org) Another obstacle is partisan control of redistricting, whereby state legislators – Republicans and Democrats all – carve up their state’s districts to guarantee the election of party-sanctioned candidates, using the power of partisan legislatures to support the status quo. Discriminatory ballot access requirements that are heavily biased against independent and third-party candidates, and the exclusion of such candidates from the nationally televised presidential debates jointly sponsored by the two major parties, are other obstacles. State laws that ban fusion and citizens’ initiative and referendum distance independents and all voters from the policy-making process. The latest barrier discovered in the Colorado electoral process is related to campaign finance, read about it in the lawsuit challenging the statute allowing partisan candidates to raise twice the amount of money per individual vs. their independent counterparts. Why do independent voters need a voice? Although the U.S. Constitution makes no mention of political parties – and although George Washington warned us to beware of them in his Farewell Address to the nation – the major parties conflate their own institutional priorities and interests with those of our government. They operate a virtually closed system in which they make all the rules; independents have no representation on any of the bodies that regulate elections, from the Federal Elections Commission to state and local boards of elections, including those that will be counting ballots for Colorado’s only independent at the Capitol, State Representative Kathleen Curry. The rules are largely designed to keep out competition and to sustain the power of the parties themselves. Without traditional partisan allegiances and with a recognition that nonpartisan politics produces the best public policy, independents are singularly positioned to drive meaningful reform of the electoral process.
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CONTACT: joelleriddle@hotmail.com or call (970) 799-3720 |
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