In 2015, voters in Seattle, WA approved the Seattle Democracy Voucher Program, a first-of-its-kind program aimed at combating the role of big money in elections through publicly-financed democracy vouchers.
With the program’s fourth election cycle in the rearview mirror, Georgetown sociologist Brian McCabe and Jennifer Heerwig, a sociologist at Stony Brook University, have published a new report on the program’s effects on Seattle’s 2023 elections.
“After each election cycle, we published a report tracking trends and developments in the Democracy Voucher Program,” said McCabe. “Bringing evidence and data to bear on this innovative program helps policymakers, advocates and the program staff better understand how it is working, and the types of adjustments that would improve results.”
Here’s how the program works: Seattle residents are eligible to participate in the program during every election cycle. They receive four vouchers, each worth $25, that can be used to support qualified candidates in municipal elections for mayor, city attorney and city council. The program is funded by a property tax that raises $3 million each year.
The program requires buy-in and effort from both political candidates and voters to work. Candidates running in a relevant election must collect signatures and qualifying donations before being able to access money from vouchers. The Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission, or SEEC, provides all registered voters in Seattle with vouchers. Residents can then assign their vouchers to a local candidate as a way of donating money in the election.
To date, the program has had a profound impact on the city’s political landscape. Ten of the 11 current officials who were eligible to use the program benefited from donations received via democracy vouchers.
After robust engagement with the program in the 2021 mayoral election, participation in the program declined in the most recent election cycle, which included only elections for districted City Council races. In 2023, 30,649 residents allocated democracy vouchers, representing a participation rate of 4.72%.
“After several election cycles with growing participation, we were surprised to see such a steep decline in 2023,” said Heerwig. The researchers pointed to several potential factors, including the lower-profile election without a mayoral race and voter fatigue from the pandemic. “Even with these declines in participation, Seattle residents using their vouchers are more representative of the electorate than cash donors,” she added.
Jennifer Heerwig and Brian McCabe’s new book on Seattle’s Democracy Voucher Program.
“Seattle remains a trailblazer in policy reforms to improve the experience of local democracy and address political inequalities in citizen participation,” said McCabe. Despite the decline in participation, McCabe and Heerwig note that the program has been successful in giving many underrepresented demographics a financial edge in the city’s election.
“While they participated at lower rates than other groups, low-income Seattleites and people of color were more likely to use their vouchers than they were to give a cash donation — the traditional way of participating in the local campaign finance system,” said Heerwig.
The latest report is part of an ongoing collaboration between McCabe and Heerwig. This month, McCabe and Heerwig published a book digging into the program history, implementation and success building on more than six years of research. Published by the Temple University Press, Democracy Vouchers and the Promise of Fairer Election in Seattle is available now.
After teaching about housing policy on the Hilltop, Brian McCabe (SFS’02) was appointed to lead housing policy development for the Biden Administration within the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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