On Tuesday, the Democratic and Republican Parties of Pennsylvania nominated candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, and the commonwealth's congressional delegation to Washington.

Yet 1.1 million independent voters were disenfranchised by closed primaries, which are only open to partisan voters.

Nearly half of U.S. states have an open primary in which any registered voter is allowed to participate, and several have closed primaries like Pennsylvania.

Ever heard of a primary election? That's where voters nominate candidates for the general election, right?

Well in San Diego County, that's just not so.

A group of independent candidates are running to be the first unaffiliated lawmakers elected to the legislature in Colorado history. The slate of independents was brought together by Unite Colorado, which is trying to build the structural and financial support these candidates need to beat the two-party establishment.

From December 2015 when I began as The Young Turks first-ever reporter in the field to two and a half years later, I was fortunate enough to grow an audience by showing the stories of the downtrodden: the struggling, the poor, the poisoned, and frankly, the screwed by an ever-expanding 'United Corporations of America.'

As the Green Party candidate for Congress in upstate NY District 21, when I describe the threats of global warming and the urgent need for an electric grid and national economy based on clean, renewable energy, I always hear the same three challenges:

Contrary to popular belief, the United States Supreme Court did not legalize sports betting in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association. It merely ruled that the decision of whether to authorize sports betting resides with the states.

However, it changed the betting line on a variety of issues including the decriminalization of cannabis as well as the validity of sanctuary states and cities.

Tim Canova, founder of Progress For All and independent candidate for Congress, won a significant legal victory Friday when a circuit court judge ruled that the Broward County Supervisor of Elections illegally destroyed ballots cast in the 2016 Democratic congressional primary.

It is no secret that Americans are dissatisfied with the work Congress is doing. A 15 percent congressional approval rating has become the norm in American politics. Most voters don't feel either party represents them on Capitol Hill, and people feel like neither chamber is able to get anything substantive done.

But there are organizations out there that are leading the effort to change a political culture that has millions of Americans feeling left out in the cold.

The state elections commission in Delaware claims it just doesn't have the manpower to resolve a dispute after a tiny splinter group recently broke off from the Libertarian Party of Delaware, and confusingly named itself the Libertarian Party of Delaware Inc.

Back in February Delaware’s election commissioner Elaine Manlove told Delaware State News she didn’t know which party should get the ballot access belonging to Delaware’s more than 1,600 registered Libertarians: "I don’t know who gets to claim them at this point. I am awaiting a response from my Deputy Attorney General."