Iowa Voters

Here’s a briefing on the VOICE bill by Jenifer Parsons. She produced this work April 2, 2007 for the Iowa House Democrats. Parsons is a member of their research staff. It has been shortened just a little bit by my editing.

VOTER OWNED IOWA CLEAN ELECTIONS ACT
HF 805
Current Status: House Appropriations Committee

This new Act gives candidates for public office a choice in how they fund their campaign for elective office. It is completely voluntary on the part of the candidate. VOICE provides qualifying candidates—who agree to limit their spending and reject contributions from private sources—with a set amount of public funds to run for office.

In general, VOICE candidates receive full public financing for the primary and the general elections. They qualify for funding by raising a high number of $5 qualifying contributions from voters in their districts or state. VOICE is not an attempt to patch up the current system, but instead is designed as an alternative to it. VOICE reform provides another way for candidates to finance their campaigns.

A similar law has already been enacted in Maine, Arizona, and Connecticut. New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina and Vermont have enacted the “clean money” option for some races.

VOICE has passed constitutional muster to date by working within the confines of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling known as Buckley v. Valeo (1976). The Buckley ruling states that government can place limits on the amount of money an individual or PAC can contribute to a candidate. However, government cannot place limits on spending UNLESS public financing is offered and the system is voluntary.

VOICE is funded with $10 million from unclaimed and abandoned properties in the custody of the State Treasurer’s office. In other words, it is not funded with tax money. Other funding sources include a $5 income tax check-off ($10 joint return), voluntary contributions to the VOICE Fund with up to a $200 tax deduction, unspent seed money, and qualifying contributions.

Funding measures of the bill take effect January 1, 2008. The VOICE option for candidates does not become effective until November 3, 2010, which gives the VOICE Fund ample time to collect enough funding to become self-sustaining.

Highlights of the bill are as follows:
• VOICE Fund is a separate fund within the State Treasurer’s Office. The State Treasurer is required to annually deposit $10 million into the VOICE fund from the proceeds derived from the sale of unclaimed property. If the proceeds from the sale of unclaimed property do not equal $10 million, the State Treasurer must transfer unclaimed utility deposit refunds to the VOICE Fund.
• Candidates apply to the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Finance Disclosure Board to become a VOICE candidate by collecting a set number of signatures and $5 contributions from registered voters in their district. The contributions are deposited into the VOICE Fund.
• Qualified political parties are those whose candidates received at least 20 percent of the total number of votes cast in the previous general election. (This weeds out nonviable third parties and their candidates).
• Requires that a nonpartisan voter information program and advisory council be established by the Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board. The council is required to publish and distribute a voter information guide.
• The VOICE qualifying period begins 90 days before the primary election and ends 30 days before the primary election. It is during this 60 day window (March, April) that a candidate must obtain the necessary signatures and $5 contributions from registered voters to qualify.
• Participating candidate means a candidate on the ballot who qualifies for VOICE funding.
• Non participating candidate means a candidate who is on the ballot but has chosen to privately finance his/her campaign with individual contributions and PAC contributions, or a candidate who is on the ballot and has applied for but has not satisfied the requirements for receiving VOICE funding.
• Iowa Ethics and Campaign Finance Board (IECFB) has 5 days after receiving an application for VOICE funding to determine if a candidate has satisfied all of the requirements. If so, the IECFB provides the candidate with a debit card and a set amount of money is deposited into the candidate’s Campaign checking account.
• Allows a person to voluntarily contribute to the VOICE fund through a $5.00 checkoff on their income tax return.
• If the opponent of a VOICE candidate has decided to privately finance his/her campaign, a trigger is in place for the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board (IECDB) to release additional funds in the form of a dollar-for-dollar match up to 200% of the initial allocation to a VOICE candidate if any of the following occurs: the privately funded opponent exceeds the initial allocation, or money is spent by 527 committees or other independent groups to benefit the opponent. The IECDB will know when this is happening through additional reporting required by privately funded candidates as well as groups spending money independently.
• There is an exploratory period of 18 months (November through May). During this time, candidates decide if they will publicly or privately finance their campaign. Candidates can raise “seed” money during this time to cover any expenses associated with becoming qualified for VOICE. This is the only private money a candidate can spend. An individual cannot contribute more than $100 of “seed money” to a candidate. Candidates are limited to raising and spending seed money to become VOICE eligible as follows:

• Governor/Lt. Governor: $25,000
• Other Statewide offices: $15,000
• Iowa Senate: $ 2,000
• Iowa House: $ 1,000
• Political parties can contribute up to 5% of the initial allotment in cash or in-kind contributions to a VOICE candidate. In addition, political parties can provide a staff person to assist a candidate.

Contributors must be registered voters who reside within the candidate’s electoral district and who are eligible to vote for the candidate

VOICE funds to qualified primary election candidates; adjusted to CPI on 12/31

Office Funding Maximum
Governor/Lt. Governor $750,000 $1,500,000
Other Statewide $75,000 $150,000
Iowa Senate $22,500 $45,000
Iowa House $15,000 $30,000

VOICE funds to qualified General Election candidates

Office Funding Maximum
Governor/Lt. Governor $3,000,000 $6,000,000
Other Statewide $200,000 $400,000
Iowa Senate $40,000 $80,000
Iowa House $30,000 $60,000

Contributions Limits for Non-participating Candidates:
1. Candidates for statewide Office:
a. $1,000 in the aggregate per individual contribution.
b. $5,000 in the aggregate per political committee contribution.
2. Candidate for the Iowa Senate and House of Representatives;
a. $500 in the aggregate per individual contribution.
b. $1,000 in the aggregate per political committee contribution.

Nine Iowa counties that used touchscreen voting machines as part of their equipment in each precinct have decided to get rid of them. Their change of heart was prompted by the legislature’s orders that all votes must be put on paper. Counties had to add paper trail printers to their touchscreens or replace the touchscreens. The counties opting to replace are Benton, Black Hawk, Clinton, Davis, Floyd, Linn, Scott, Story, and Wright. This covers some of Iowa’s biggest cities: Waterloo, Cedar Rapids, Davenport and Ames.

If you live in one of these counties and if you appreciate this move by your auditor, send a thank you note.

Other counties have passed up this opportunity to improve their voting equipment. Some of them, such as my county, seem to take every opportunity to use the paperless gadgets despite the known flaws (high failure rates, impossible recounts). Simple paper ballots have been abandoned even in school board races and bond issues where only one item is being voted on. It would appear to be far cheaper to use ordinary paper and count by hand than to pay for special scanned ballots or to pay for programming of touchscreens when the vote is merely “YES” or “NO”.

The state convention of Iowans Citizens for Community Improvement was held Saturday in Des Moines. Clean elections were a central issue for the members.

The pro-VOICE workshop was held in the biggest room. It featured a publicly funded winner from the Arizona state senate, Meg Burton Cahill. She barely upset a powerful senior incumbent of the AZ legislature on her first try for elective office. She ran with public financing. She has become so popular that in the most recent election she carried every precinct in her district, despite being in the “wrong” party for that district.

The Senator argued that current law demands two skill sets from legislators: ability to craft public policy, and ability to raise campaign money. She said these skills don’t often reside in a single person. As a result some legislators depend on party leaders to raise money for them and thus lose their independence. She also waved a brochure for an upcoming campaign workshop in DC which featured many fundraising workshops, such as “It’s All About the Benjamins” and “Give and Take, and Take and Take”.

Later the CCI members heard from former Iowa Congressman Berk Bedell. He said it’s great to work on an issue like VOICE. No politicians are against it, he noted, but added that none of them do anything to advance it.

Common Cause also sent a representative who briefly answered questions about the federal clean elections bill and referred the audience to their website for further information. Bedell said Common Cause may place full-time staff in Iowa to advance the issue.