Are independent voters special? Mayor Adrian Fenty believes so, but this morning Togo West and the Board of Elections and Ethics ruled that they’re no different than anyone else.

Concluding that the requirement that already-registered voters submit party-affiliation change requests thirty days before any election “did not take any right from voters that they had prior to enactment of the rule,” BOEE board members West and Charles R. Lowery, Jr. voted to unanimously deny a petition filed by Fenty which would have allowed any of the District’s 72,000 registered independent voters to switch to the Democratic Party before the September 14 primary election. It is a big victory for mayoral challenger Vince Gray, who had painted the maneuver as a last ditch effort by Fenty to rein in “no party” voters. Gray’s campaign claimed the Fenty camp had been identifying and targeting such voters for months.

Those in favor of Fenty’s petition argued that those who registered as “no party” voters should be able to vote in the primary because the rule which prevents independents from switching parties less than 30 days before an election is unfair and disenfranchising. They also argued that since the District now allows citizens to register up to and on Election Day, then party switches should also be allowed until the election. Supporters of the petition also noted that the switch from independent to Democrat was not the same as someone who wanted to switch from Republican to Democrat.

The individuals testifying against the petition made several cogent counter-arguments.