A Farewell to Elephants and Asses

An interesting statistic from Ballot Access News:

For the first time in at least 75 years, less than three-fourths of the nation's registered voters are registered "Democratic" or "Republican."

New registration data…shows that the percentage of voters registered "independent" or as members of minor parties now exceeds 25%. Of course, this data is solely from the 30 jurisdictions in which people register into parties on registration forms. The other 21 states are excluded because they don't have partisan registration.

Declining major party membership is surprising, since the race for the Democratic presidential nomination has motivated some voters to switch to the Democratic party, so as to be able to vote in Democratic primaries.

The third party with the most registered voters is the conservative Constitution Party, but that's probably because "that party's affiliates in California and Nevada have names that include the word 'Independent' (the California party is the American Independent Party, and the Nevada one is the Independent American Party). Virtually all neutral observers believe that many voters who intend to register 'independent' wind up in those parties by accident."

[Via Sam Smith.]