Independents and the Voting Rights Act

The Supreme Court didn't exactly gut the Voting Rights Act today, rather, they ruled that the antiquated tabulation metrics are unconstitutional. So Congress must act or the Voting Rights Act sits like a beached whale. But will they? Approval for congress is at historic lows, something has got to give. Among other things the VRA needs to address apparent discrimination based on partisan loyalty that has supplanted racial discrimination in elections.

In the video on the right, this Wall Street Journal reporter can't hide her giddiness. The Fox News guest makes some good points and some that don't get to the real issues of how election prejudice has evolved away from racial prejudice to ideological prejudice. The video on the left is titled "Court guts voting rights act" and also brings up some good points but still does not get to the meat of the matter.

Parties Only 2.0

A time for thanks

Andrea and I hosted a barbecue Saturday for friends of the Utah League of independent Voters. We wish to extend a special thanks to our call in guest Dr. Omar Ali of Towson University in Maryland who visited with us about open primaries equating the practice of closed primary elections to a broader application of Jim Crow practices upon a larger group--the large bloc of independent voters outside of the 2 party establishment.

Special thanks also to our other candidate class guests:
Dave Glissmeyer (independent for Utah's 2nd Congressional District), Joe Puente (independent for Utah's 3rd Congressional District), Jared Stratton (Libertarian for Utah's 1st Congressional District), Morgan Bowen (Democrat for Utah's 1st Congressional District & Ross Perot supporter back in the day), Burke Larsen, independent voter and Davis School Board candidate for precinct 6.

Blogger Nancy Hanks was also a distant guest who live blogged about our event: The Hankster

Dr. Ali commented on a video which appears on independentvoting.org regarding open primaries. Here it is, enjoy.



about the author:
Randy Miller is the founder and President of the Utah League of independent Voters. He lives in Syracuse Utah and is an independent candidate for Davis County Surveyor in 2010.