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Brook Pierce – Independents are excluded from the process – Please address these issues in your report

Friday, March 11, 2022

To PCEA Commissioners Bauer and Ginsberg
c/o Mark Nejbauer

Presidential Commission on Election Administration
Commissioners Robert Bauer and Benjamin Ginsberg
GSA,
1776 G Street NW.,
Washington, DC 20006

Dear Commissioners Bauer and Ginsberg:

As the recent government shutdown demonstrated, partisanship is tearing our country apart – and Americans aren’t happy about it. Yet, somehow, despite the shockingly low approval ratings of Congress, low voter turn-out nationwide, and the fact that 40% of Americans identify as independent, our politicians persist in pretending that we are a nation that heartily supports a destructive two-party oligarchy. Thankfully, you have the opportunity to recommend crucial structural reforms that can address this problem and help Americans start believing in their government again.

I am one of the many independents in this country, and one of the 1,100 people who signed a letter encouraging you to recognize that the most important aspect of our election process is ensuring it is open to all. We have testified before your committee that we are not able to fully participate in the democratic process due to partisan primaries, registration requirements, rule-making bodies, ballot requirements, redistricting, and other laws that deny equal voting rights to independent voters. In addition, voters do not have initiative and referendum rights in half the states.

I strongly encourage you to address these issues in your final report. The fact that this disenfranchisement of a huge number of voters has continued for so long is an embarrassment to this nation. Millions of independents register with a party just so that they can exercise their right to have a say in primaries, which is a clear sign that the system is broken.

Show us that America puts its citizens before parties. This is supposed to be a democracy – please help us get closer to being able to fully participate in the electoral process.

Best regards,

Brooke Pierce
New York, NY