Independent Party asks Oregon Secretary of State to include all Presidential candidates on May Primary ballot

A Top One Independent Nomination for President

In what would become a first of it’s kind independent voter only “top one” primary, the Independent Party has requested Oregon’s Secretary of State to include all current Republican and Democratic Candidates, as well as non affiliated/independent candidate Michael Bloomberg, Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein on the Independent Party’s May primary ballot. The winner of this “top one primary” would move on to the November general ballot in Oregon as the nominee of the Independent Party. If the Independent top one winner also wins another party’s nomination, that person could list both nominations on the ballot in November.

Empowering 640,000 Oregon Voters.

The Independent Party has already opened it’s primary election to non affiliated voters. Meaning that should the Secretary of State honor the IPO’s request, the 110,000 IPO members as well as any of the 530,000 non affiliated Oregon voters who request an IPO ballot would be able for the first time in history, participate in a Presidential preference poll that included all candidates.

Want to participate?

First, the Secretary of State has to agree to make this a Top One Primary as the IPO requested. If she does then here’s how independent voters get to be heard in this historic race for President.

If you’re already registered with the IPO: IPO ballots will be automatically sent to all registered IPO members. If you’d like to participate you don’t need to do anything – except perhaps let the Secretary of State know that you’d like her to approve the IPO’s Top One primary.

Voters who are currently non affiliated with any party, but who would like to participate in this “top one” preference poll, can either change their registration to Independent Party of Oregon by following this link. Or, alternatively, the Secretary of State has set up a cumbersome mechanism for non affiliated voters to keep their current registration, but get an IPO ballot. You will need to wait for the Secretary of State to send you a postcard in the mail. Then you must make a written request with your local election office to receive the IPO ballot. Then they will mail that to you. Hopefully all this can occur before ballots are due. (The IPO asked the Secretary of State to send an IPO ballot to all non affilaited voters as part of the notice opening it’s primary. That would have encouraged voter participation – a stated Democratic Party priority – and saved taxpayer money. The SoS refused)

The simpler way would be to re-register with the IPO online, then register back to being non affiliated after the election, should you choose to do so. (However, there are good reasons to consider remaining an IPO member. Particularly if you’d like to participate in more elections such as this presidential preference poll)

Here is the IPO’s request to Secretary of State

The Secretary of States response will be due soon, as a decision on ballots needs to be made within one week.