Democracy Dollars

By providing a positive incentive to participate, Democracy Dollars increase civic engagement.  

All of us want to vote for someone who is honest, thoughtful, intelligent, compassionate, trustworthy and connected to their community.  At no point does anyone say they want to elect someone just because they are a skilled fundraiser or also happen to be wealthy. 

Yet we continue to operate within a system that excludes good people with good ideas from participating as both candidates and donors because of their lack of access to money and “we the people” pay for it.  We literally pay for it.  What is the cost to each of us for the continued failures to improve education, access to housing, public transportation and infrastructure?  How have we spent millions of dollars in recent years and not made headway on the homeless crisis?  Will we respond to the climate crisis with bold and thoughtful policies?  Or will we suffer continued failure in leadership to meet our most pressing problems head on?  We need to remove financial barriers to full participation in our democratic process. 

We all know there are many elected officials who do great work on our behalf.  But the system requires that even once they get elected and are often required to constantly fundraise instead of working on our behalf.  To stay “employed” for us they have to essentially work a second job fundraising.

Even when large donations from special interests don’t impact votes, the implied corruption from seeing the endless flow of money and lack of meaningful action creates an apathetic electorate. When you believe your vote doesn’t matter, you don’t vote.  Seeing great people take money but not deliver results leads to voter disengagement.

Yet constituents and elected officials need to listen to each other and work together to see change in our communities.  

To change the outcomes of our elections, we have to change how campaigns begin.  We need to make running for office more accessible and encourage candidates to connect with their whole community.  Right now, less than 1/2% of us donate to candidates running for office.  This means that this tiny percentage of people decide who is on your ballot.

Public financing puts the power of “who decides” into the hands of every person.  By providing a positive incentive to participate, Democracy Dollars increase civic engagement.  When you see that your voice matters equally, you’re encouraged to participate more.  

• Seattle Campaign Finance Dashboard - Detailed accounting of candidate fundraising and expenditures including democracy vouchers totals for current & past elections
• Open Oakland - Campaign Finance Dashboard for the City of Oakland
• FollowTheMoneySanDiego - San Diego's Volunteer Built / Coordinated Campaign Finance Dashboard (Work In Progress Launching Next Campaign Jan 2022)
• Follow The Money - National Campaign Finance Database