California political parties couldn’t use ‘independent’ in their names under plan

SACRAMENTO — 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.

The proposal, to be introduced in the state Senate later Friday, would ban any party from using the word “independent” in its official name beginning in next year’s statewide elections — a change largely directed at the American Independent Party of California.

“I think their numbers would decline dramatically,” said state Sen. Tom Umberg, a Santa Ana Democrat who is the bill’s author. “The name is deceptive.”

The legislation follows complaints by elections officials and voters that the American Independent Party’s name wrongly implies that the group is nonpartisan. Those objections have grown louder as the ranks of voters who choose to be unaffiliated — designated in California as “no party preference” — have grown. They represent more than 1 in 4 voters, outnumbering the Republican Party’s share of the electorate.

In 2016, a Los Angeles Times investigation found that a sizable number of American Independent Party voters didn’t believe they had joined a political organization. In a poll of AIP voters conducted for the Times, 73% of those surveyed mistakenly thought they were unaffiliated voters. Once told of their official registration status, almost 40% of the AIP voters said they wanted to reregister without any party selection — what they thought they had done the first time.

Nor did many of those surveyed agree with the platform of the American Independent Party, an organization that traces its roots to the 1968 presidential candidacy of the late George Wallace, the segregationist governor of Alabama. Wallace’s failed presidential attempt that year hinged on qualifying for California’s presidential ballot with new political party identification.

The party’s current platform takes strongly conservative positions on marriage, abortion and gun rights. Party leaders chose President Donald Trump as their presidential nominee in 2016, and the AIP website says Trump and Vice President Mike Pence will be its selections next year, “God willing.”

Markham Robinson, the party’s chairman, told the Times in 2016 he had previously supported changing the organization’s name but didn’t because of worries the party would lose its official status. Robinson didn’t respond to requests for comment on the new legislation.

Senate Bill 696 states that no political party can include in its name any of three references frequently made to unaffiliated voters: “decline to state,” which is the official designation the state used until 2010; the currently used “no party preference”; or “independent.” It would allow the AIP to retain its state certification if it selects a new name and receives approval from the secretary of state. But if the party refused to change its name, it would lose its certification in January.

The bill would also require state elections officials to notify every voter registered with a party whose name must be changed.