Help us improve in just 2 minutes—share your thoughts in our reader survey.
Albuquerque, New Mexico, Proposition 2, Democracy Dollars Program Initiative (November 2019)
| Proposition 2: Albuquerque Democracy Dollars Program |
|---|
|
| The basics |
| Election date: |
| November 5, 2019 |
| Status: |
 Defeated
|
| Topic: |
| Local elections and campaigns |
| Related articles |
| Local elections and campaigns on the ballot November 5, 2019 ballot measures in New Mexico Bernalillo County, New Mexico ballot measures Local elections and campaigns on the ballot |
| See also |
| Albuquerque, New Mexico |
A charter amendment concerning campaign financing was on the ballot for Albuquerque voters in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, on November 5, 2019. It was defeated.
| A yes vote was a vote in favor of creating a program called Democracy Dollars that would provide eligible city residents with $25 vouchers that they can give to a participating candidate. |
| A no vote was a vote against creating a program called Democracy Dollars. |
Proposition 2 would have made Albuquerque the second jurisdiction in the U.S. (after Seattle) to adopt government-disbursed vouchers, known as democracy dollars, that voters could contribute to candidates.
Proposition 2 was one of two ballot measures on the 2019 ballot in Albuquerque that was designed to make changes to the city's existing public financing system. The second ballot measure—Proposition 1—increased public funding for candidates participating in the city's public financing program.
Election results
|
Albuquerque Proposition 2 |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Result | Votes | Percentage | ||
| Yes | 39,390 | 48.75% | ||
|
|
41,416 | 51.25% | ||
Text of measure
Ballot question
The ballot question was as follows:[1]
| “ |
Shall the City of Albuquerque adopt the following amendments to update the language of the Open and Ethical Elections Code, which provides for public financing of City candidates: provide eligible city residents with Democracy Dollars, to contribute to their choice of qualified candidates, which the candidates could redeem with the City Clerk, up to a limit, for funds to spend in support of their campaigns, as directed by the City Council, and increase the funds for publically financed mayoral candidates?[2] |
” |
Full text
The full text of the measure is available here.
Support
Albuquerque Democracy Dollars led the campaign in support of Proposition 2.[3]
Supporters
Officials
- U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont)[4]
- U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts)[5]
- Former HUD Secretary Julian Castro (D-Texas)[6]
- U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland (D-1)[7]
Organizations
The campaign Albuquerque Democracy Dollars listed the following organizations as committee members:[8]
- Center for Civic Policy
- Clearly New Mexico
- Common Cause New Mexico
- Equality New Mexico
- Organizers in the Land of Enchantment
- New Mexico Working Families Party
- SouthWest Organizing Project
Arguments
Albuquerque Democracy Dollars stated the following about the proposal:[3]
| “ | Too many elections are often decided by a small group of secretive and rich political donors. They have all the power to decide who represents us, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
Democracy Dollars gives the power back to the people—at no extra cost to the taxpayer—by letting public candidates raise small contributions from regular people who normally wouldn’t participate in funding campaigns. Today’s candidates pay too much attention to wealthy donors and not enough to regular people. Democracy Dollars will help to modernize the city’s current public financing program because they will ensure that participating candidates from all parts of the city can run competitive campaigns based on the strength of their local support, not the size of campaign contribution checks. Democracy Dollars gives candidates the freedom (and the incentive) to walk out of that high-dollar fundraiser and come knock on your door—for a real conversation about what matters to you. Every year, fewer and fewer candidates take public financing: they know it's gotten harder to win under the current structure, letting big donors’ voices are dominating the elections that should be determined by all of Albuquerque’s voters. Albuquerque overwhelmingly wants more public financing, not less: we voted for it by 70%. Democracy Dollars renews the viability of the public financing program for our city. Seattle implemented a similar program in 2017 and all but one candidate in the general election ran with vouchers and small donations—that’s a program that works.[2] |
” |
Opposition
Arguments
- Julie Wright, chairwoman of the Republican Party of Bernalillo County, said, "As hurdles to challenging incumbencies go, Democracy Dollars is a huge one. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or Republican. If you don’t like your current officeholder, you will never get rid of them under the Democracy Dollars system."[9]
Media editorial positions
Support
Ballotpedia did not identify media editorial boards in support of the ballot measure. If you are aware of a media editorial board position that is not listed, please email the editorial link to editor@ballotpedia.org.
Opposition
- Albuquerque Journal: "On the other hand, except for well-known politicians with campaign machines, this does nothing to help a wanna-be candidate meet the burden of qualifying for public financing, much less accrue many $25 contributions. Either way, Democracy Dollars doesn’t add up. Voters deserve a vetted proposal with a clue as to the “cost” side of the cost-benefit equation. New Mexico’s never met a public financing program it couldn’t complicate and abuse. How many times do we need to be burned before we’re a little shy?"[10]
Background
Seattle Initiative 122 (2015)
In 2015, voters in Seattle, Washington, approved Initiative 122, which made Seattle the first U.S. jurisdiction to adopt government-disbursed vouchers that voters could contribute to candidates. Initiative 122 established a system in which voters received four $25 vouchers and could contribute these to candidates, provided that the candidates adhered to specific campaign contribution limits. In 2019, the King County Superior Court ruled that the voucher system was constitutional. The ruling stated that the measure did not violate free speech and that the system "resembles other content neutral ways the government facilitates political speech, for example, when the government distributes voters' pamphlets.”[11]
Path to the ballot
This measure was put on the ballot through a successful initiative petition campaign. About 28,000 unverified signatures were filed for the ballot initiative, and 19,480 were required to be valid. On August 10, 2018, the city clerk announced that enough signatures were valid for the initiative to appear on the ballot.[12]
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ City of Albuquerque, "Democracy Dollars," accessed October 9, 2019
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Albuquerque Democracy Dollars, "Homepage," accessed October 13, 2019
- ↑ Twitter, "Bernie Sanders," November 5, 2019
- ↑ Twitter, "Elizabeth Warren," November 5, 2019
- ↑ Twitter, "Julian Castro, October 29, 2019
- ↑ Twitter, "ABQ Democracy Dollars," October 31, 2019
- ↑ Albuquerque Democracy Dollars, "Contact," accessed October 13, 2019
- ↑ Albuquerque Journal, "Residents to weigh in on Democracy Dollars proposal this fall," September 3, 2019
- ↑ Albuquerque Journal, "Editorial: ‘Democracy Dollars’ can’t add up without a real bottom line," September 13, 2019
- ↑ King County Superior Court, "Mark Fester and Sarah Pynchon v. Seattle," July 11, 2019
- ↑ Common Cause New Mexico, "“Democracy Dollars” Initiative Now Heads to Bernalillo County Commission for placement on November 2018 General Election Ballot in Albuquerque," August 10, 2019
| ||||||||
