Seattle’s public campaign funding experiment is turning 10 this year, and voters must decide if they want to keep it going for another decade.
The property tax levy that pays for the city’s Democracy Voucher program is up for renewal on the August 5 ballot. If Proposition 1 passes, the property tax will raise $4.5 million a year for 10 years, up from the current annual amount of $3 million.
The tax will be levied at a rate of $0.0142 per $1,000 of assessed value, according to the Seattle Ethics and Election Commission. That means the owner of a home assessed at $1 million would pay $14.20 a year for the tax.
The goal of the program is to increase participation and political sway for everyday Seattleites, reducing the influence of a small pool of wealthy donors who typically dominate American political fundraising.
Every election cycle, Seattle residents get four $25 vouchers to distribute to participating candidates running for local office. Candidates can receive the vouchers if they pledge to abide by campaign fundraising and spending limits.
Candidates must also first collect signatures and donations of at least $10 from Seattle residents to qualify to collect vouchers. The number required varies by office. For example, a mayoral candidate needs 600 signatures and donations to qualify.
Proponents of the program argue it’s been successful in its stated goals of increasing small-donor participation in local politics and diversifying the range of donors.
“At a time of deep national concern about the health of our democracy, Seattle can lead by example,” the Yes on Prop 1 campaign wrote in the King County Elections voter guide. “For about $13 a year per median homeowner, we can empower everyday people to support candidates they believe in — even if they can’t afford to give. Eliminating democracy vouchers would reverse the progress we’ve made — just as billionaires pour more money into elections across the country.”
The pro statement was written by King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda and Estevan Muñoz-Howard, who worked on the 2015 initiative to create Democracy Vouchers.
Opponents argue that program participation has been too small to justify its continued cost. They also say it fails to reduce big money’s influence on Seattle elections, since outside spending by big PACs has continued. In 2021, the election with the highest Democracy Voucher participation so far, PACs spent more than $2 million on the mayor’s race alone.
“Seattle’s Democracy Voucher Program is inefficient, underutilized, and fails to curb big money’s influence. Seattleites are forced to pay a tax, in an already unaffordable city, to fund political campaigns where most of the money doesn’t even get used. The city should return the money to the taxpayers. Let’s start by ending the program,” Ari Hoffman wrote in the voter guide opposition statement. Hoffman is a former City Council candidate and conservative media figure.
Researchers from Georgetown and Stony Brook universities analyzed Seattle’s Democracy Voucher program from 2017-2023. They found that the number of voting-age residents donating vouchers increased steadily from 2017-2021 before dropping off in 2023, a reduction they attributed to a combination of lesser interest in district Council elections and post-pandemic political fatigue.
In 2017, the first election year for the program, just over 20,000 people gave vouchers. In 2019, that number rose to 38,000, or 6.76% of voting-aged Seattleites. The program hit its high-water mark in 2021 with 48,000 participants, or 7.59%. In 2023, that number dropped to just 30,649 participants, or 4.72%.
Sightline Institute, a think tank that helped design the 2015 ballot initiative, points out that though those percentages are low, just 1.5% of Seattle adults donated to campaigns in 2013, a mayoral election year.
Sightline also argued that the program has been successful in shifting the size of political donations and reducing out-of-state donating. In 2013, about 60% of donations were $400 or more. In 2023, donations of $400 or more accounted for 13% of campaign contributions, with 69% of contributions falling in the $100-$399 range.
In 2015, 28.6% of donations came from out of state. That percentage fell steadily in subsequent election cycles, down to 12.9% in 2021 and 7.4% in 2023.
The Georgetown and Stony Brook researchers found that participation in the Democracy Voucher program largely mirrors existing patterns of political participation in Seattle, with higher-income residents participating at higher rates than low-income residents, white people at higher rates than people of color, and older Seattleites more than younger ones.
But the researchers also noted that Democracy Vouchers increased political donations across demographic categories including income, race and gender relative to cash donations.
“Democracy Voucher users are more representative of all Seattle voters than cash donors,” the report concludes. “This pattern suggests that — even though participation declined sharply in 2023 — the program continues to make progress in diversifying the donor pool.”
Data from the city shows that administration costs for the Democracy Voucher program are about $1.4 million in election years and $650,000 in non-election years. Candidate disbursements vary from cycle to cycle. In 2021, the program disbursed $3.4 million to candidates. In 2023, that amount dropped to $2.4 million.
Money from non-election years is saved for election years when the program costs more than the funding raised by the levy. According to the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission, any money raised by the levy stays within the Democracy Voucher program and is not used elsewhere in the city budget.
In a presentation to the City Council in March, city staff explained that the jump from $3 million to $4.5 million annually is meant to offset inflation and increased administrative overhead costs.
Ballots for the primary must be returned by August 5 at 8 p.m.
