A group of registered voters in Maryland are suing the state for the ability to vote in the primary elections, according to the Washington Post.
Dona Sauerburger was “disillusioned with America’s two-party system,” so 10 years ago she registered as an independent voter. She told the Post the move was “immediately disenfranchising.”
This is because registered Maryland voters who are unaffiliated with a political party are not allowed to vote in primary elections.
Sauerburger used to protest outside primary polling places, but now she, along with a group of independent voters, is taking the fight to the courts.
“I’m interested in ending this division and polarization, and I’m realizing now that it’s really our election system that’s doing this as much as anything else,” said Sauerburger. “I still am liberal. I still have my same views. But I have become disenchanted with the political parties themselves.”
According to the Post, “The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in state court in Anne Arundel County by attorney Boyd Rutherford, Maryland’s former Republican lieutenant governor, in collaboration with the nonpartisan Open Primaries Education Fund.
“This is all a voting rights issue,” said Rutherford. “The parties can still decide how they want people to participate in their primaries. But the state should not be paying for it because it is unconstitutional.”
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“We believe it is a fundamental American value that every citizen should have a right to vote in a public election,” said Jeremy Gruber, Open Primaries senior vice president. “We all pay for them as taxpayers, but independent voters by the millions are being shut out of public elections. It’s a voting crisis in this country.”
The outlet noted, third-party and independent voters are currently a growing segment of Maryland’s electorate.
Sauerburger said that he major political parties, “seem more interested in power than addressing their constituents’ needs.”
“I don’t feel that I’m part of the constituents that candidates are appealing to,” she added.
The Board of Elections, the state attorney general’s office, and representatives from the Maryland Democratic, Republican, and Green parties did not respond to the Post's requests for comment.
The governor’s office declined to comment.
