Democracy Voucher Program

May 30, 2021

Seattle started the Democracy Voucher Program in 2017 1. I thought it was a clever idea at the time, but I’m only now getting around to actually participating in it.

It’s a lot bigger ask than voting. I think it’s worth doing… you become a more informed citizen and it’s a clever idea to get the money out of politics.

Notes

  • Seattle registered voters get 4 x $25 vouchers to give to candidates.
  • You get the vouchers in February, then have until November to submit them.
  • In 2021 there are 4 positions available for vouchers: Mayor, City Council positions 8 & 9, and City Attorney.
  • This program is funded by a $3 million/year property tax2. (About $8 per household 3.)
  • With ~492k registered voters 4, that’s enough money for 6% of registered voters.
  • Unused voucher money is carried forward to the next year, enough so that $6.8 million is available for 2021 2 (14% of registered voters). For details see the Budget Summary Report on the 2019 Biennial Report.
  • As of May 30, ~18k people have submitted their vouchers for 2021 5. (3.7% of registered voters.)
  • In 2019, ~38k voters submitted their vouchers 6. (7% of registered voters.)
  • The names of everyone who submits a voucher and the candidate they submit it to are available in a *.csv file on the program data page 5. I looked around but didn’t recognize anyone I know. :-)
  • There are $ limits per position… Mayor: $800k, City Council: $375k, City Attorney: $475k 3.
  • There is a terrific FAQ to know more.

Strategy to getting it done

  1. Read the Candidate Introductions document. At the time of this writing there are 16 candidates with write-ups, one page each, combined for all 4 positions. Very doable. There are more candidates, so this is a nice filter.
  2. Optionally you can do some follow up research on candidates. I did this for a handful of them. In hindsight I had better things to do. Just shoot from the hip.
  3. Don’t mail these things anywhere! Create an account on the Online Portal. It’s easy to submit vouchers from there. Once you sign up they will email you vouchers in the future instead of mailing them 6.

Looking through the Voucher Program Data.csv file it looks like most people submitted all 4 vouchers for the same candidate. I sprinkled mine around a bit.

You probably want to do this earlier rather than later. It might help a candidate with viability and/or the money might run out.

Otherwise just recycle the vouchers and trust that 6% of your fellow registered voters will get the job done. :-)

References

  1. Young, Bob (November 3, 2015). “‘Democracy vouchers’ win in Seattle; first in country”. Seattle Times. Retrieved May 30, 2021. ↩

  2. Democracy Voucher Program. Retrieved May 30, 2021. ↩ ↩2

  3. Information for Seattle Residents. Retrieved May 30, 2021. ↩ ↩2

  4. City Registration Demographics as of May 3, 2021. Retrieved May 30, 2021. ↩

  5. Democracy Voucher Program data. Retrieved May 30, 2021. ↩ ↩2

  6. 2019 Biennial report. Retrieved May 30, 2021. ↩ ↩2