Independents on the Rise as Voters Leave Major Parties
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Party affiliation may be losing its appeal.
More and more voters are registering as independents while the number of Democratic and Republican voters declines, according to a new study by USA Today.
The analysis found that since the 2008 elections, more than 2.5 million voters left both the major parties. Democrats lost the bulk of that, with 1.7 million people leaving the party since 2008.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Meanwhile, the number of independents has grown by 400,000 in that time.
The figures are a potential boost to anybody thinking of running as a third-party candidate. But independents are still a minority in the 28 states that register by party -- there are 24 million independents, compared with 30 million Republicans and 42 million Democrats.
The rise in independents can be due in part to people switching their party affiliation, but also to first-time voters signing up as independents.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A Scarborough Research survey in November found that nearly 50 percent of young voters consider themselves independents or not affiliated.