For the last several years, I’ve been spending time in rural Wisconsin in a small farmhouse set on 130 heavily-wooded acres on County Road T, Polk County. This is the northwestern Wisconsin of hardscrabble dairy farming, bitter winters and luminous springs.

At least 26 million voters in the United States were denied the freedom to vote in the 2016 presidential primary elections. A large portion of these voters were independents. I am assuming that a similar problem occurred in the 2018 mid-term elections.

It is time to create a new primary election system. This undemocratic process has continued for far too long. It is time that we give ownership of the election process back to the American people.

San Diego, Calif.- San Diego Union-Tribune Columnist Michael Smolens joined me for a wide-ranging conversation about the many political issues facing the City of San Diego and State of California.

In our latest IVN Podcast, Smolens had strong comments on City Councilman Mark Kersey moving from Republican to Independent, the chance that the convention center expansion passes in March 2020, and the substantive changes needed for the 2020 ballot to avoid the same issue we saw in 2016 with NPP voters.