As the nation gears up for another campaign season, political party membership in Maryland remains lopsided.
Statewide, Democrats hold a more than 2-to-1 advantage over Republicans, but in rural areas like Washington County, Republicans hold a commanding lead. While Democrats struggle to win elections in Western Maryland, their fellow party members maintain a stranglehold on the General Assembly.
But lately, both parties are having to contend with a different political force: the unaffiliated voter.
In Washington County and the state as a whole, the number of voters declining to declare any political party affiliation is surging, according to statistics from the state Board of Elections. In the last five years, numbers of unaffiliated voters statewide have grown more than twice as fast as Democrats, and about four times as fast as Republicans. This continues a trend that started several years before.
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3 comments:
I changed mine back to independent the last time I renewed my license and got my new voter registration card within a couple weeks. It was easy.
I'm among the ranks of the unaffiliated. The thing that stinks is that, at least in Maryland, we're not allowed to vote in the primaries (as was stated in the article). If I wanted to vote for one party or the other, I'd register my affiliation with one of those parties; it would be awesome to have the option to vote for whomever I wanted in the primary, just as I do in the general election...
having to register for anything related to voting is reprehensible.
the whole system is corrupt.
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