1. United States
2. Ariz.
3. Letter

I am writing to express my strong support for Senator T.J. Shope's legislation prohibiting new political parties from using terms like "independent," "unaffiliated," "no preference," "no party," "party not designated," or "decline to state" in their names. This bill addresses a serious problem created when Secretary of State Adrian Fontes approved the No Labels Party of Arizona's name change to the Arizona Independent Party in October 2024, which took effect in December. The term "independent" has a specific meaning in Arizona politics. It refers to voters who are not registered under any recognized party. Allowing a political party to appropriate this term creates obvious confusion for voters who may believe they are supporting truly independent candidates when they are actually voting for members of a partisan organization. The Secretary of State's Office already recognized this problem by barring the Arizona Independent Party from using "IND" initials on the ballot, which demonstrates that even election officials understand the potential for voter confusion. The signature requirement disparities make this issue even more concerning. Unaffiliated candidates for statewide office must collect 44,539 signatures, while Arizona Independent Party candidates need only 1,288 signatures. This creates an unfair advantage for a party that has deliberately chosen a misleading name. While party chair Paul Johnson claims critics are concerned about maintaining barriers for unaffiliated candidates, the real issue is protecting voters from deceptive branding that misrepresents what they are actually voting for. The bill's requirement that new parties have "distinguishable" names and that existing parties go through the full process of starting a new party rather than simply changing names establishes reasonable guardrails. With the bill scheduled for the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Elections on Wednesday, I urge you to support this common sense measure that protects voter clarity and electoral integrity.