We must also remember that this is a party first formed in 1968. When it was formed, it became a force under George Wallace. Everyone who registed into the party, within 8 years of its founding HAD to know what it stood for–as George Wallace and the AIP were constantly in the news until 1976. After that, William Shearer (the founder of the party) helped craft an election law that said parties would be listed alphabetically. As the party’s original founding has moved further nad further away, you’ve had more and more independents mistakenly registering into the party, while the number of ACTUAL AIPers declined due to death or dissafection to the Republicans.

Yes.

I think you are making a leap in saying that those who voted for AIP candidates are a subset of those registered AIP.

For all we know, most of those who voted AIP are not registered AIP.

I don’t know this for a fact; what I do know for a fact is that I have registered thousands – I believe tens of thousands – of voters in California, including many who checked the AIP box. When they would do this I often asked them if they meant to register with a political party, and the vast, overwhelming majority indicated they did not – they meant to register decline to state a political party.

Lastly, there were a very small number who did know what the AIP was and did mean to register that way. It was a vanishingly small minority. Maybe 0.2%, maybe even 2%, but certainly not anything like 20%.

This is only from personal experience, but I had a large representative sample, and other petitioners I know have all told me the same thing.

That’s a gross exaggeration.
As of May 2008, there are 331,619 voters registered with the AIP.
Michael Peroutka, recieved a paltry 26,600 votes for president in California in 2004. This is about a third of what our Senatorial and Gubanatorial candidates did in 2006. But using these 2004 numbers, 8% of AIPers voted for Peroutka.
Using the senate race from 2006, the number is 22.72%. The gubanatorial race, 20%.

The further back you go, the more the number increases–which contradicts your theory. More people are registered and vote independent these days,and yet the AIP’s vote totals were HIGHER before this ascent of the “Decline to State” voter.

Senate race year — Vote total
2006 — 75,350
2004 — 81,224
2000 — 134,598
1998 — 54,699 (weak candidate, dislike by many conservative)
1994 — 142,771
1992 — 373,051

That’s an exaggeration. Most who want to be registered independent correctly check the “decline to state” box.

I’ve advocated for some time now a new libertarian party in CA called the “Decline of the State Party”.

I think “the vast majority” is unfair. I’d say 20-25% of registered AIP voters KNOW what party they are in and vote along those lines when possible.

In my experience of registering thousands of voters in California (quite possibly tens of thousands), the vast majority of people who register AIP fall in this category.

As a result, voters that don’t want to be counted as members of a political party must REGISTER as “UNENROLLED” – can you say “cognitive dissonance”? It can be a real challenge to explain how this system works…

ART
LPMA – Speaking for myself