‘DEMOCRACY VOUCHERS’: What you need to do, or don’t need to do, to get yours

One year ago, Seattle voters approved Initiative 122, 63 percent yes, 37 percent no. A major component: A tax levy to pay for “democracy vouchers,” a step toward campaign-finance reform. Starting tomorrow, you can apply for your share of the vouchers, to be spent on qualifying city campaigns next year. If you’re already registered to vote, you will get them automatically – if you’re not a registered voter, today’s city announcement explains, you’ll have to apply:

Democracy Vouchers are a new way for Seattle residents to become more active in city government by donating to candidate campaigns and/or running for elected positions themselves. Beginning December 1, Seattle residents may apply to receive four $25 Democracy Vouchers to give to candidates running in the 2017 City of Seattle elections.

Registered voters in Seattle will automatically receive $100 in Democracy Vouchers by mail after January 3, 2017. Seattle residents do not have to be registered voters to receive Democracy Vouchers.

To be eligible to use the $100 in Democracy Vouchers, residents must:
Live in Seattle;
Be at least 18 years of age; and
Be either a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or lawful permanent resident “green card holder”.

If residents meet the eligibility requirements, they are encouraged to apply for Democracy Vouchers. The application is available in 15 languages [Amharic, Cambodian, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Tagalog, Korean, Lao, Oromo, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Thai, Tigrigna, Vietnamese, English] at www.seattle.gov/democracyvoucher.

Seattle residents may only give Democracy Vouchers to participating candidates running for City Council or City Attorney. The program will expand to include the Mayor’s race in 2021. Residents may give participating candidates one ($25), two ($50), three ($75), or all four ($100) of their Democracy Vouchers.

Next year, two City Council seats will be on the ballot citywide, the “at-large” positions, currently held by Councilmembers Tim Burgess (P. 8) and Lorena González (P. 9). The other seven, elected by district, will not be on the ballot until 2019.

P.S. The city says it’s sending an “informational mailer” about this to every household in Seattle in about a week. Meantime, if you want to read the full initiative that created this – it’s here.

28 Replies to "'DEMOCRACY VOUCHERS': What you need to do, or don't need to do, to get yours"

  • Your Mom November 30, 2016 (3:10 pm)

    How is this legal?  Really, a legitimate question? 

    I genuinely cannot wrap my mind around this.  The funds for these “democracy” vouchers are pulled form taxes, correct?  

    • WSB November 30, 2016 (4:27 pm)

      Yes, as described above, passed by voters. It was an initiative that got enough signatures to get on the ballot and then was approved by 63 percent in the November 2015 election.

  • Mark November 30, 2016 (4:51 pm)

    I agree with your mom on this.  Spending tax dollars like this is not a good use of limited resources in my humble opinion.

  • MsD November 30, 2016 (5:06 pm)

    I voted against this, and I’m now curious as to what happens if people just don’t use the vouchers.  I can’t recall anyone running for city council in recent memory who impressed me enough to even want to give them “free” (OK, not free) money.  It would be pretty funny to find out that the biggest backers were the American Translators Association – looks like this created a lot of work for some of their members.

  • Peter November 30, 2016 (5:17 pm)

    The really sick and disgusting thing about this is that it steals our tax money and gives it away to politicians, which is just outrageous. Those who don’t want to give their tax money to politicians should be able to cash them in. But no. This is about the enrichment of politicians at our expense and nothing else. I’m still pissed off this passed, and very happy the state version failed badly. 

    • Poultine December 6, 2016 (7:58 am)

      I think you’re missing the other half of the law, which limits campaign contributions from entities which have contracts with the city. Without it, you have huge incentives for corruption: people, companies, lobbies, etc, donate huge amounts and mysteriously receive city contracts later on. This tries to break that cycle by putting money into the hands of ordinary people.

      I have no idea whether or not it’ll work, but it seems reasonable to try it out for a few years. Breaking the cycle of the rich influencing politics disproportionately sounds like a worthy cause.

  • Heartless? November 30, 2016 (5:19 pm)

     I watched Mike O’Brien on the Seattle channel say “this is a great program, it doesn’t even cost you anything to participate.”

     Yeah Mike, except our taxes!  What, you say taxes aren’t real money???????

     I can’t believe 63% of voters approved this thievery, or that it is in any way constitutional.

     Typical Seattle City Council stuff. 

    • WSB November 30, 2016 (5:30 pm)

      The council did not initiate I-122. It was a citizen initiative. Here’s who is/was on the sponsoring organization’s executive committee.

      Some other questions meantime are answered in the online FAQ:
      http://www.seattle.gov/democracyvoucher/seattle-residents#How is the Democracy Voucher Program funded?

      One I hadn’t thought about – it notes that your decision of who to give a voucher to will be public record. As are campaign donations now.

  • ltfd November 30, 2016 (5:27 pm)

    Idiocracy Vouchers

  • chemist November 30, 2016 (5:37 pm)

    Just under 460,000 registered voters in Seattle getting $100 in vouchers ($46 million face value) each election year funded with $3 million in property tax collections each year for 10 years.  It’ll be interesting to see how many candidates sign on to accept them and what happens if the money runs out.

  • TheKing November 30, 2016 (5:44 pm)

    I think I will put mine on eBay 

    • Ktrapp November 30, 2016 (6:13 pm)

      Unfortunately, the FAQ says that’s not possible.  Although, without knowing how it works exactly, I don’t know if that means the system doesn’t allow it, or if you’re just not supposed to do that.  Since you just sign, date, and put the name of the candidate on your voucher, I don’t see why you couldn’t sign them, leave the rest blank, and give them to someone else.  My first response was to also wonder how much I could sell these for.

      I do find it annoying that the city’s site doesn’t make any mention of what happens if you don’t use your vouchers.  Especially since the money is apparently already colllected.  I’d be happy to have mine diverted to another agency.

      I didn’t vote for this, and I continue to feel like this is something a high school civics class would have dreamed up, without thinking through all the pitfalls and impracticalities.

      • TheKing November 30, 2016 (6:44 pm)

        I was actually just kidding but also trying to shed some light on how taxpayers money will be potentially wasted. I voted no also. 

  • 56bricks November 30, 2016 (5:56 pm)

    You do realize you live in Freattle,right?  Amazing I have to volunteer info for certain postings. Well,maybe not.

  • Chris Stripinis November 30, 2016 (6:04 pm)

    Who funds politicians’ campaigns now?  If corporations do, then that money would come from the higher prices they charge consumers to fund their corporate lobbying.  Either way, the public pays, but at least with the vouchers you can direct who you want the payment to go to.

  • ACG November 30, 2016 (6:08 pm)

    I agree, Peter.  It makes me mad that I am being taxed to provide money to give to politicians.  If I am moved to support a politician with my money, that should be my choice.  If I choose not to spend my hard earned money on a politicians campaign, that should be my choice also.  Being forced to use my money to fund political campaigns makes me mad.  We should be able to cash in the voucher if we choose not to have our money spent this way.   I voted no, but sadly I was outnumbered. 

    • chemist November 30, 2016 (6:40 pm)

      I wonder if you could write an initiative that changes the voucher program so that they can also be redeemed for some of the neighborhood group projects….  like if ANA wanted to collect the vouchers to fund installing HAWK crossings on California in north admiral.

      If no candidate seems to have the chops to do an improvement the neighborhood wants, you can just put your money into the project rather than the candidate’s campaign.

  • Discouraged November 30, 2016 (6:36 pm)

    My understanding, which may or may not be accurate, is that only the candidates who redeem the first $3 million worth actually get paid, and they don’t pay out past that. I really hope I’m wrong about that, because it would mean that all the money will go to those candidates who round the vouchers up quickly. Those of us who research candidates’ policy positions thoroughly will probably still be deciding who to support, while the “sound bite voters” give all their vouchers to whoever makes the most outrageous promises. Someone please tell me I’m wrong.

    • chemist November 30, 2016 (7:50 pm)

      There are limits as to how much a candidate can raise from the vouchers, although there are also mechanisms to exceed those limits to “match” opponent spending too.

      I imagine the vouchers will also be subject to public disclosure as campaign contributions, so eventually various groups will be able to “target” individual voters based on not having a record of their vouchers being redeemed yet.

  • Please November 30, 2016 (7:03 pm)

    Here is a plan. Someone run for council and ageee to cash out every democracy voucher they receive for 75 cents on the dollar. I would happily give you all four of my vouchers for $75.

  • CAM November 30, 2016 (7:58 pm)

    The intent of these vouchers was in part to allow those individuals who do not have the capability to make political donations from their own funds to be able to show support for a candidate, therefore hopefully increasing the amount of attention candidates pay to those individuals who are often not catered too during a campaign because they aren’t aren’t able to write a check. Encouraging political candidates to pay even a slightly increased amount of attention to those most vulnerable and often ignored groups instead of corporate donors seems like a very worthy cause to me.

  • PW November 30, 2016 (9:23 pm)

    Can we get a measure to repeal this tax? The City has taken  taxing to a new limit?

    What a mess..  

  • New Thinking Needed November 30, 2016 (9:58 pm)

    The FAQ says the property tax for these vouchers will be collected for 10 years. In 10 years do we get to vote again? I voted no, and I would support a repeal measure.

    How is the Democracy Voucher Program funded?  In November 2015, Seattle voters approved a property tax increase, amounting to a total of $3 million per year to fund the program for the next 10 years.

  • Kevin November 30, 2016 (9:59 pm)

    Didn’t the mayor just ban the city from asking about a person’s immigration status?

  • M December 1, 2016 (8:27 am)

    Seattle isn’t affordable because of the taxes from of these stupid programs. 

    Is it too early to write in the names of whomever will oppose Sawant or Obrien in the next election? 

    Otherwise I’m just going to sell mine on EBay too to partially recover my tax money. And I don’t care what the “FAQ” says about it. 

  • FreeRangeAuthor December 1, 2016 (7:59 pm)

    Democratic tyranny brought us modern involuntary servitude …

    1. We do not get any service.
    2. We have to finance multiple candidates, only 1 gets elected.
    3. There have been NO local candidates since Charlie Chong who I could support. I write in NOTA for most local candidates. So the “people” steal my money – I get NOTHING in return.

    I want to solicit any and all citizens (Voucher slaves) who object to this involuntary servitude to join together to BURN their Vouchers at a community event.

    This plus ST3 and other insane taxes coming down the pipe are my last straw. In 2015 I started looking for homes outside the progressive counties. Now I’m looking in the panhandle of Idaho – I’m getting out of this State!

    I would gladly support any action to have WA, OR & CA depart the Union – get rid of those insane Prez Electors!! Let those crazy States form their own nation.

    BURN YOUR VOUCHER!!!

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