It’s become customary that voting rights issues are relegated to one of two categories: either things resolved in the distant past — i.e., the 14th Amendment (1866), the Reconstruction Acts (1867-68), the 15th Amendment (1870), women’s suffrage (1920), the Voting Rights Act (1965), etc. — or, as in more contemporary times, viewed in the context of individual voter rights, such as the controversy surrounding ID requirements at polling sites.

Remarkably, the fact that polls show 38 percent of Americans identify as independent in a two-party system such as ours hasn’t become part of the national conversation. That’s starting to change.

Along with the economy, partisanship and its corrosive effect on policymaking have become the two most important issues for our country. Few would argue that our political process hasn’t devolved as it’s fallen into the ownership of the political parties. A recent NBC poll showed that 89 percent of Americans don’t have faith in their government.

In Maryland, I, as an independent voter, can’t make my voice heard in a primary election although I’m fully expected to fund these contests with my taxpayer dollars. The reason being, if you are not affiliated with one of the two major political parties, you can’t vote. It calls to mind Henry Ford’s remark about the Model T in 1909, “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.” This seems to be the methodology of the political parties: “You can vote for whomever you want, as long as it’s one of us.”

While increasing numbers of Americans reject party politics, our electoral process still is regulated by the two parties. The electorate is changing, and our process must change to reflect the makeup and preferences of American voters. Currently, 33 states allow independents to vote in presidential primaries, and only 21 states allow independents to vote in Congressional primaries.

Most independents hold some views that are considered to be conservative, as well some that are liberal. They don’t fit neatly into a Democrat or Republican box. For these reasons, and for the fact that I like to choose the best candidate (not the best party), I’ve claimed the independent moniker for years. Now I have added another reason, possibly more important than those stated previously — to effect structural change in the American political process.

Independent voters in the IndependentVoting.org network — a national association of independents with organization in 40 states — are spearheading a campaign to persuade Congress to hold hearings on the second-class status of Independents and to shed light on the ways that partisanship has become so hard-wired into the political process, the American people can’t be heard. While some of the barriers to an open process fall under local and state jurisdictions, Congress has the authority to investigate election laws and regulations to ensure fairness to the American people.

As I speak to people about their political affiliations and share with them what it means to be independent, more and more of them embrace their right to exert more influence in the political process. Voting rights are coming to mean the efforts of unaffiliated voters to push for structural reforms needed to lessen the power and privilege of political parties and to empower the nearly 40 percent of Americans who identify as Independents.

Jeremy R. Stinson, Cheltenham