Governor Paul LePage has asked Maine Attorney General Janet Mills and state Treasurer Terry Hayes to leave office either by resignation or a leave of absence.

Both Mills, a Democrat, and Hayes, an independent, are running to replace LePage when he leaves office. Via separate letters delivered on Monday, LePage cited campaigning as the reason they should step down, to "avoid any potential conflict of interest.”

LePage and Mills have openly clashed in recent years.

https://twitter.com/Governor_LePage/status/1026916491554430977

Update: After voting discrepancies were discovered, Kris Kobach announced that he will recuse himself from the recount of the GOP gubernatorial primary election. Additionally, sitting Gov. Jeff Colyer, who trails Kobach by a slim margin, sent a letter to Kobach, calling on him to step away from advising local elections officials on the recount.

The letter said:

Seniors in America have it tough. Instead of granting COLA (cost of living adjustments), the Republican-controlled Congress has been hard at work finding ways to slash Social Security and Medicare, the two programs which provide the majority of income and medical coverage to millions of retired Americans.

Calling all nonpartisan reform campaigns, projects, and organizations. Do you have a great idea, a new campaign, or an ongoing nonpartisan electoral reform project that deserves attention, endorsement, and funding?

The Boston Globe published an editorial Tuesday, saying the Massachusetts Legislature "would be wise to adopt ranked-choice voting, coupled with a robust voter education campaign, for statewide elections."

The Globe writes:

There are more registered independent voters in the state of Kansas than the total number of voters who participated in the August 7 closed primary elections.

There are 1.8 million registered voters in Kansas. Nearly a third of these voters could not participate in the primary elections, while about a quarter of total registered voters actually participated.

https://twitter.com/BACaskey/status/1026974737208094725

Let's put this in perspective and look at the top-ticket election in the state -- the race for governor.

Dr. Tom Coburn, a former member of both the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives, joins host T.J. O’Hara on this edition of Deconstructed. He discusses the toxic political environment in Washington, D.C. and Congress’ continued resistance to assuming any degree of fiscal responsibility.

Independent candidate Dr. Ann Diamond garnered enough votes in Washington state's 12th legislative district, position 1 Tuesday to place in the top two and advance to the November election. Dr. Diamond could now make history as she would be the first independent elected to the state legislature if she wins in November.

Millions of voters are not just choosing to self-identify as independent of the two major parties, they are dumping their party registrations in droves.

In about half the states that register voters by party, independent voters outnumber at least one of the two major political parties. But here are 9 states where independents not only outnumber registered Republicans AND Democrats, they are also having a significant impact on political developments within the state.

Note: All registration numbers are the most up-to-date as of the time of this writing.

1. Conservatives think you're liberal, and liberals think you're conservative.

When you have discussions with your friends or people online about politics, you get accused by hyper-partisan conservatives of being a radical left winger, and later that same week a hyper-partisan liberal accuses you of being alt-right.