SACRAMENTO — An effort to limit voter confusion in California by banning the use of the word “independent” in a political party’s name was vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday, a ...

But the former Democrat’s switch to independent earlier this month won’t solve anything. Sinema is still bound by the parties, no matter which letter— D , R , or I —appears next to her name.

In 2016, a Los Angeles Times investigation found that a sizable number of American Independent Party voters didn’t believe they had joined a political organization.

If the nation’s political independents somehow formed a party, polls suggest, they could dominate American politics. Two-fifths of Americans identified as independent in 2022, far more than ...