TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

If you are disappointed, annoyed or fed up with the Democratic and Republican parties to the point of abandonment, you have a growing number of friends.

More Californians than ever are choosing to register as "little i" independents -- "decline to state" in California's electoral vernacular. And, as a result, fewer voters are registering with the major parties.

One registered California voter in five is now officially unaffiliated, double the number that declined to state a party preference in 1995. The percentage of independent voters isn't quite that great in Kern County -- 57,270, or 18 percent -- but the number of "declines" here has increased 33 percent in just four years. Both parties, locally, have taken a hit in registration, but the Republicans have suffered most: Democrats have lost a single percentage point over the past four years, but Republicans more than 4 points.

How is this possible in Kern County, still as red a county as exists in California? I haunted a local Starbucks one morning last week and asked customers if they had any idea. Most did.

"If people have previously held membership in a political party, and now they're independent, it's because their party has let them down," said Esteban Balikian, hunkered over a laptop with a large cup of tea. "Some of them feel like they've been betrayed."

Cesar Hernandez, a registered Democrat who says he has considered switching parties, said the preponderance of decline-to-state voters suggests that Americans see no clear way forward.

"There's a lot of confusion in the country right now as far as where we're going," he said. "What's the right math to get things right again? I think a lot of people are asking those questions right now, and probably a lot of them believe that (registration as an independent) makes the most sense while they try to figure it out."

Some new, young voters simply opt for non-affiliation because they don't feel like they have a firm handle on what the parties stand for. That's the case with Carolyn Fox, a Bakersfield College student. "I didn't know what I wanted to be when I first registered, although I think I lean Republican," she said. "I appreciate the fact that the primary is a top-two thing, though."

She was referring to the Prop. 14 election law, approved by voters in June 2010, that allows the two top vote-getters to advance to the general election regardless of party -- a change that both the Republican and Democratic establishments in California fought tooth and nail. The new system takes effect this year.

Fox's friend, Tessa Ogels, said many new voters simply don't want to be labeled. "People like to feel like they can make decisions separate from what some party is trying to tell them," she said.

David Van Amstel, who switched his party affiliation from Republican to decline-to-state four years ago, said he simply refuses to be boxed in. "I changed because I wasn't happy with the Republican Party. They seem to blame the president for everything, when we've had a Republican House in there (for two years). And there's less acceptance of the House (based on poll numbers) than there is of the president. So what does that say? Anyway, my attitude is, I don't vote for the party, I vote for the person. Both parties are bad."

Kern County Republicans continue to dominate Dems, 42.8 percent to 34.5 percent. But state and county voter registration numbers don't tell the whole story. Forty percent of voters identified themselves as politically independent in 2011, regardless of their registration, according to a Gallup poll released last month.

Political parties' relative strength can ebb and flow over time, but Republican and Democratic party leaders alike are well advised to take independent voters' current temperature. This interest in independence comes at a time when partisan polarity may be at its greatest extreme since the dawn of the republic. Is there a connection? You bet there is.

Email Editorial Page Editor Robert Price at rprice@bakersfield.com.