Political Parties & Candidates

Oregon led the pack for a time in terms of innovations to help people participate in elections, write David Ellis and Jeremy Gruber. its refusal to open the Democratic and Republican primaries to non-affiliated voters, however, lags far behind other states that have embraced open primaries.

In one key way, Oregon lags other states in making voting easy. Its closed primary system locks out hundreds of thousands of non-affiliated voters who now make up one-third of Oregon's registrants. Oregonians should keep up the pressure on the parties to open their primaries and on the secretary of state candidates to also make this a central part of their platform.

Non-affiliated Oregon voters requested 97 percent fewer ballots for the Independent Party of Oregon's primary election this year compared with 2016. Source: Far fewer non-affiliated Oregon voters participating in Independent primary

With potentially hundreds of thousands of California voters under the mistaken belief that they are registered as independent from partisan affiliation, newly drafted state legislation could end the confusion by forcing one minor political party to change its name.

After serving three terms as a Republican, former state Rep. Jim Thompson says he is looking at running for his old House seat as an Independent.

Political parties and open primaries are the electoral equivalent of oil and water.