NEW YORK (AP) _ The Independence Party will seek legislation that will allow New York's 2.2 million unaffiliated voters to vote in the party's primaries for statewide and federal offices, a published report said Friday.

"Our hope is the blank voters will take it as a message that we want them and they will choose to affiliate with us," Frank MacKay, the chairman of the Independence Party, told The New York Times.

Under state law, the only people who can vote in a party's primary are the voters enrolled in that party.

MacKay plans to formally propose the change at the party's next meeting, in February.

Tom Golisano, the Independence Party's candidate for governor, came in third place in the Nov. 5 election, winning just 14 percent of the vote. The party, with 257,000 members, is the third largest in the state.