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Independent Party of Florida
The Independent Party of Florida (IPF) is an American centrist[1] minor political party in the State of Florida.[2][3] The IPF is the third largest party in Florida by number of registered voters, behind the Republican and Democratic parties, not counting those who are No Party Affiliation.[4] HistoryThe Independent Party of Florida was founded in 1993 out of support for Ross Perot's 1992 presidential campaign.[1] Its chair is Ernest Bach, a former Republican from Pinellas County.[5] For the 2016 presidential election, the IPF attempted to nominate Utah conservative independent candidate, Evan McMullin, however, he was denied ballot access, and they endorsed Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, instead.[1][5]In the 2020 presidential election, party leaders considered nominating independent, Brock Peirce, but opted not to, out of fear of spoiling the election for Joe Biden in favor of Donald Trump. The Independent Party did not endorse any candidate in the 2024 presidential election.[6] The Independent Party has struggled to maintain its minor party status, lacking recourses to maintain a website or social media presence.[5] In 2017, the Florida Election Commission revoked its status on technicality because its last audit was not done by a certified public account, as required by Florida law,[7] however, it was reinstated a few months later.[2] Naming confusionMany voters who have registered with the Independent Party of Florida did so falsely believing that they were registering as an independent, as in a nonaffiliated voter, contributing to the party's large number of registered voters.[8][7] In Florida, a voter must register as No Party Affiliation (NPA) in order to not be aligned with a specific party. The situation has been compared to an incident in which many independent voters in California accidentally registered with the ultraconservative American Independent Party. Chairman Bach has denied that their voters registered with them by accident. [1] The Independent Party of Florida was often confused with the now defunct, Independence Party of Florida.[7] References
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