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{{short description|Voter not aligned with any political party}}{{Not to be confused with|Independent Party|Independence Party}}{{Globalize|date=November 2020|article|United States}}
{{Elections}}
An '''independent voter''', often also called an '''unaffiliated voter''' or '''non-affiliated voter''' in the [[United States]], is a [[Voting|voter]] who [[Voter registration in the United States#Party affiliation|does not align]] themselves with a [[political party]]. An independent is variously defined as a voter who votes for candidates on issues rather than on the basis of a [[List of political ideologies|political ideology]] or [[Partisan (politics)|partisanship]];<ref name="Sorauf">Sorauf and Beck, ''Party Politics in America,'' 1988.</ref> a voter who does not have
Voting systems outside of the United States, including the [[Westminster system|British parliamentary system]], do not utilize a party affiliation system as part of their voter registration process; rather, participation in party affairs is based on enrolling as a member within the party itself, and the number of party members is much smaller than the party's total electorate (for example, the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]], which received 12 million votes in the [[2021 German federal election]], only has 400,000 members). The closest equivalent is the so-called "floater voters" or [[swing vote]]s, who do not consistently vote for a particular party.<ref name=":0" />
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