The District’s 72,000 independent voters won’t get a chance to vote in the Sept. 14 Democratic primary as Mayor Adrian Fenty’s re-election campaign had hoped.
Late last week, the mayor’s campaign petitioned the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics to interpret a new voting law that allows voters to register on the same day as the primary as also allowing independent voters to sign up as Democrats and vote. The board denied the petition after a hearing on Wednesday morning, saying the D.C. Council made clear that it did want voters from other parties to have the opportunity to vote in the historically closed primary.
Unlike voters who are registered as either Democrats or Republicans, independent voters in D.C. are people who have chosen specifically not to register with any party. Fenty’s argument hinged on the idea that these voters should be treated like voters who are registering the day of the primary. The campaign’s outcry came after the board of elections issued an emergency rule on Aug. 12 that set a deadline of Aug. 16 for voters, including independents, to change their party affiliation so they could vote in the Democratic primary.
That decision, Fenty campaign attorney Marc Elias said during Wednesday’s hearing, “disenfranchises them. …Not being able to vote in the Democratic primary this year is the same as telling these voters they have no right to vote for mayor.”
The Republican party isn’t fielding a candidate for the general election.
Gray’s campaign fired back, saying voters have long known they need to be a member of a particular party to vote in its primary. The information is included on voter registration cards.
D.C. Democratic Party Executive Director David Meadows said allowing unaffiliated voters into the primary “would hijack our party.”
