No Party Affiliation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
No Party Affiliation or NPA is a term used to apply to those voters or politicians who do not hold affiliation with any or any particular political party. Another more common term used in place of NPA is Independent. However, NPA is more of a legal term, while Independent is more of a colloquial term.
In Michigan, for example: the term Independent is not used by the Secretary of State of Michigan because it could be interpreted as a party affiliation. Likewise, when Ross Perot's Reform Party initially organized as the Independence Party, the name was rejected because the Secretary of State decided that the name would be misleading to voters who may mistake it for the concept of No Party Affiliation. This was one of the reasons that the name of the party changed to the Reform Party. In California the label "Independent" applies to the American Independent Party, founded by George Wallace, and currently affiliated with the U.S. Constitution Party.
