"The GOP in recent years has done poorly among younger voters, who are more apt to register as Democrats or independents ..."

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POLITICS: More voters than ever are ditching their party preference
Fed up with the two-party process, scores of Inland voters are registering as independents.
By Jeff Horseman, October 12, 2014

The older Mike Feix got, the more the two-party system angered him.

“I am so fed up with BOTH political parties and the process as it is now being engaged in by our two major parties,” the 67-year-old wrote in an email. “I am so tired of the (adversarial) take on problems. The parties used to work for the people, or at least in my younger idealistic days I liked to think so.”

Feix, a Chino Hills resident, recently changed his voter registration from Democrat to “no party preference,” joining a growing number of California voters.

The percentage of independent voters statewide has hit an all-time high, the California Secretary of State’s Office recently reported. Almost 1 in 4 voters is not registered with a political party, up from 20 percent in 2010.

The trend mirrors what has happened locally and nationally. Since 2010, the number of independents in Riverside and San Bernardino counties rose 20 percent and 31 percent, respectively. Independent voter numbers in Orange County fell in the past four years.

Forty-two percent of Americans consider themselves independents, the highest percentage in 25 years, according to a Gallup poll from January. Gallup chalked up the trend to negative views of Congress and the two-party system and a general mistrust of government.

TREND HURTS GOP

The rising number of independents stands to hurt Republicans more than Democrats, Gallup found. In 2006, 34 percent of California voters were registered Republicans and 44 percent were Democrats.

Today, just 28 percent are Republicans compared to 43 percent for Democrats. Registered independents went from 19 percent of California’s electorate in 2006 to 23 percent in 2014.

The GOP in recent years has done poorly among younger voters, who are more apt to register as Democrats or independents, said Jack Pitney, a professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College and former researcher for the Republican National Committee.

The California Republican Party is trying to draw more independents with a more diverse field of candidates, said party spokeswoman Kaitlyn MacGregor. Independents are quite receptive to GOP views on jobs and the economy when they hear that message from people within their community, she said.

California’s “top two” primary system provides a disincentive to register with a party since voters don’t have to declare an allegiance to cast a primary ballot, Pitney wrote in an email.

“The only time party registration really counts is during presidential primaries,” he said. “And since the California primary has not decided a presidential nomination in over 40 years, that consideration has little force.”

Parties are allowed to restrict who can vote for their presidential nominees.

The rise in independents speaks to the decline of political parties, said Brian Janiskee, chairman of the Department of Political Science at Cal State San Bernardino.

Instead of choosing nominees and controlling government benefits, “Today, political parties raise campaign funds and coordinate media messages,” he wrote in an email. “They are still powerful, but not as powerful as they once were.”

California’s system of ballot initiatives and the nonpartisan nature of local elections further erode parties’ influence, Janiskee added.

[major snippage]
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