"Independent", or independent

Maryland voters may not be aware that the word Independent on the voters registration pertains to a political party. Mr. Dawson, Chairman for the Constitution Party of Maryland, met yesterday with the Maryland Election Board to discuss his concerns. I have taken the liberty to reprint several paragraphs from his position.

Dawson argues that the use of the term ‘independent’ as the name of a political party is misleading at best. Because the layman’s terminology for an unaffiliated registered voter is oftentimes referred to as ‘independent,’ the very idea that a partisan political organization would name itself the Independent Party is downright deceptive. Further, he adds it is very likely that many, if not most of the party’s 28,798 registered voters never intended to be registered with a partisan political party.

As evidence, Dawson looks to the registration statistics for clues to irregularities in voter registration behavior. In September 2008, the first month of the Independent Party’s existence, the number of registered voters climbed from zero to 2,292. It managed to do this with a no national organization, no previous history, no public presence (web, advertising, public figure, personality, etc.) and with a voter registration application (VRA) yet to be updated with the newly-recognized party’s name.

He offers by way of comparison, when the Green Party, as the state affiliate of a national party and recognizable by the general public in name and ideology, first attained recognized party status in August 2000, it grew by 370 registered voters in its first month.

Dawson also contends that state agencies, such as Social Services or the MVA, who have been charged with aiding voter registration efforts, have not exercised the appropriate care and diligence to secure the integrity of the voting process, with which they have been, by default, entrusted. He argues these agencies, either through lack of knowledge or laziness, have failed to accurately record and transfer the will, desire and intent of the registrant to the VRA, or completed the form on behalf of the registrant based on the word/term used by the applicant (e.g. ‘I want to be independent.’) translating it to the VRA as a registered voter affiliated with the Independent Party.

Dawson had originally filed his complaint four months ago. Since then the Board of Elections has place "Party" behind each of the political parties. This may help eliminate some of the confusion with the registration form, but anyone who has already registered, or people who change their party without the official form, need to be aware of this.