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A publicly funded election is an election funded with money collected through income tax donations or taxes as opposed to private or corporate funded campaigns. It is a policy initially instituted after Nixon for candidates to opt into publicly funded presidential campaigns via optional donations from tax returns. It is an attempt to move toward a one voice, one vote democracy, and remove undue corporate and private entity dominance.

Jurisdictions such as United Kingdom, Norway, India, Russia, Brazil, Nigeria, and Sweden have considered legislation that would create publicly funded elections.[1]

United States

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Methods of publicly funded election legislation have been adopted in Colorado, Maine, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, Arizona, North Carolina, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, and Massachusetts.

Court rulings and legality

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Portions of Vermont system for publicly funding elections were found unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 2006 decision Randall v. Sorrell. In particular, state supplemental funds for publicly financed candidates whose opponents outspend them were struck down, while full funding of governor and lieutenant governor candidates remained in place.

Portions of Connecticut's statute were held unconstitutional in 2009, on the grounds that it unfairly discriminated against third party and independent candidates, but the core program of full funding of constitutional and legislative candidates remained in place.[2] In July 2010 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld portions of the district court's order but allowed the core program to continue.[3]

In as part of the 2010 Citizens United v. FEC decision, U.S. Supreme Court defined money as a form of speech. A number of jurisdictions reacted by modifying existing laws or trying to pass new laws.

On June 27, 2011, ruling in the consolidated cases Arizona Free Enterprise Club's Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett and McComish v. Bennett, the Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional the matching-funds provision of the Arizona law.[4]

States

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Comprehensive public funding systems have been in effect in Arizona and Maine since 2000. In Maine, since enactment, approximately three quarters of state legislators have run their campaigns with government funds provided by the state program.[5] In Arizona, a majority of the state house[citation needed] and both the Republican and Democratic candidates for governor ran publicly financed campaigns in 2006. There has not yet been a statewide election in Maine in which both the Republican and Democratic candidates were financed through the public financing system.[citation needed]

In Massachusetts the system was repealed after a 2002 advisory initiative in which voters voted nearly 2 to 1 against using government funds to pay for political campaigns.

In 2008, the California Fair Elections Act (AB583) passed the California Assembly and Senate and was signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Because of the ban on publicly funded elections, the law had to be approved by voters in an initiative in June 2010. On June 8, 2010, California voters decided against the measure by 57% to 43%.[6] An earlier Clean Elections ballot initiative that suggested funding elections with a business tax, Proposition 89 was also defeated in California in 2006, by 74% against to 26% in favor of a corporate tax to fund elections.

A Clean Elections ballot initiative in Alaska failed by a 64% to 35% margin in August 2008.[7]

In 2013, North Carolina repealed its popular "Voter Owned Elections" program of public financing of judicial campaigns.[8]

Wisconsin's 33 year old program was ended by the state legislature in 2011 by Governor Scott Walker and the legislature's joint finance committee.[9]

In 2016, California overturned its ban on publicly funded elections, but charter cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles were already exempt from the ban and already have some form of public financing.

Municipalities

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Portland, Oregon's program was narrowly repealed by voters in a 2010 referendum.[10]

Seattle voters approved the democracy voucher program in 2015, which gives city residents four $25 vouchers to donate to participating candidates.[11] Since then, activists have pushed for democracy vouchers in other jurisdictions, arguing that the program would make political donors more reflective of the population, empower candidates to fundraise without relying on big donors, and decrease the influence of special interest groups over government.[12]

Denver votes passed the Fair Elections Act in 2018.[13] The law went into effect on January 1, 2020.[13] The Fair Elections Act, which began as The Democracy For The People Initiative,[14] has a public funding component that provides a 9-to-1 match on contributions up to $50 for candidates who opt-in and don't take any money other than contributions from individuals.[13] It also included a ban on donations from business and unions,[14] and lowered the amounts individuals could donate to candidates.[14]

Federal legislation

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In the US, SB 752, the Fair Elections Now Act, calling for publicly funded elections in U.S. Senate campaigns, was sponsored in the 111th Congress (2009–10) by Senators: Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Arlen Specter (D-PA).[15] A companion bill, H.R. 1826, was introduced in the House, sponsored by John Larson (D-CT), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), and Walter Jones (R-NC). Unlike the Clean Elections laws in Maine and Arizona, H.R. 1826 did not include the "rescue funds" provision, perhaps due to concern about constitutionality in the wake of the Davis decision. Neither bill moved out of committee.[16][17]

Clean elections systems

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"Clean elections" is the name supporters have given to some public financing efforts, used most prominently in Maine and Arizona.

Some clean elections laws provide a government grant to candidates who agree to limit their spending and private fundraising. Candidates participating in a clean elections system are required to meet certain qualification criteria, which usually includes collecting a number of signatures and small contributions (generally determined by statute and set at $5 in both Maine and Arizona) before the candidate can receive public support. In most clean elections programs, these qualifying contributions must be given by constituents. To receive the government campaign grant, "Clean Candidates" must agree to forgo all other fundraising and accept no other private or personal funds. Candidates who choose not to participate are subject to limits on their fundraising, typically in the form of limits on the size of contributions they may accept and the sources of those contributions (such as limits on corporate or union contributions), and detailed reporting requirements.[citation needed]

In the US, in order to comply with Buckley v. Valeo, participation by candidates is not legally required. Originally, many clean elections programs provided that publicly financed candidates who were outspent by a privately funded candidate could receive additional funds (sometimes called "rescue funds") to match their privately funded opponent, up to a cap, with the intent of assuring that a candidate running with private funding would not outspend his government funded opponent. However, in Arizona Free Enterprise Club's Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett, the U.S. Supreme Court held that such "rescue fund" provisions unconstitutionally burdened the rights of speakers by intentionally limiting the effectiveness of their own speech. Thus since Bennett clean elections systems in the U.S. have been forced to abandon the "rescue funds" approach.

Clean election systems have been endorsed by individuals including U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT),[18] political candidate Andrew Yang,[19][20] founder of the National Voting Rights Institute John Bonifaz, then-Illinois senator Barack Obama,[21] and former-U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ).[22][23]

Brazil

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In 2015, the Supreme Federal Court declared corporate donations to political parties and campaigns to be unconstitutional. Before the decision, electoral laws allowed companies to donate up to 2% of their previous year's gross revenue to candidates or party campaign funds, which totaled over 76% ($760m) of the donations on the 2014 election. The decision came as a response to corruption scandals and illegal donations, in the wake of the Operation Car Wash.[24][25]

Since then, to cover the lack of private campaign finance, a public electoral fund was set up, to be divided among the parties based on their representation in the National Congress.[26] Individuals can still make donations as a natural person, limited to 10% of their income in the previous year.[27]

See also

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Country-specific (International):

References

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  1. ^ Nick Thompson (24 January 2012). "International campaign finance: How do countries compare?". CNN. Retrieved 2021-08-07.
  2. ^ "Connecticut Campaign Finance Law Ruled Unconstitutional". Wall Street Journal. 28 August 2009. Archived from the original on 14 September 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2017.
  3. ^ Green Party of Connecticut v. Garfield (2d Cir. 13 July 2010), Text.
  4. ^ Vogel, Kenneth P. (2011-06-27). "Narrow ruling on campaign finance". Politico.
  5. ^ "Maine Ethics Commission: Maine Clean Election Act (MCEA)". Maine.gov. Retrieved 2011-01-05.
  6. ^ Kanalley, Craig (2010-06-09). "Huffington Post". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2011-01-05.
  7. ^ "2008 Primary Election Results". Anchorage Daily News. 21 October 2008. Archived from the original on 2009-01-02. Retrieved 2011-01-05.
  8. ^ Smith, Adam (2013-07-26). "North Carolina Legislature Repeals Popular "Voter Owned Elections" Program". Public Campaign. Archived from the original on 2013-10-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  9. ^ Lueders, Bill (2011-06-30). "Campaign financing dead in Wisconsin". WisconsinWatch.org. Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism. Retrieved 2014-01-12.
  10. ^ "November 2010 General Election - Official Results". The City of Portland Oregon.
  11. ^ Young, Bob (November 3, 2015). "'Democracy vouchers' win in Seattle; first in country". Seattle Times. Retrieved December 10, 2016.
  12. ^ "Democracy Policy Network". democracypolicy.network. Retrieved 2020-12-15.
  13. ^ a b c "Fair Elections Fund". City and County of Denver. Retrieved 2021-11-25.
  14. ^ a b c Gray, Haley (2018-08-28). "Denver Will Vote on Big Changes to Political Campaign Funding". 5280. Retrieved 2021-11-25.
  15. ^ "S. 752: Fair Elections Now Act". GovTrack.us. Retrieved 2011-01-05.
  16. ^ "Actions - H.R.1826 - 111th Congress (2009-2010): Fair Elections Now Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress". Congress.gov. Retrieved 2023-06-20.
  17. ^ "Actions - S.752 - 111th Congress (2009-2010): Fair Elections Now Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress". Congress.gov. Retrieved 2023-06-20.
  18. ^ "Sanders Proposes Public Funding of Campaigns". Archived from the original on 2015-08-25.
  19. ^ "Democracy Dollars - Andrew Yang for President". Archived from the original on 2019-03-29.
  20. ^ "Restoring Democracy, Rebuilding Trust - Andrew Yang for President". Archived from the original on 2019-08-15.
  21. ^ "April 13, 2009". The Nation. 2009-04-13. Retrieved 2011-01-05.
  22. ^ "Sen. McCain Embraces Clean Elections In Arizona Big Boost To Public Financing Seen". Publicampaign.org. 12 June 2002. Archived from the original on 2011-05-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  23. ^ "Dialing for Clean Dollars". Thenation.com. Retrieved 2011-01-05.
  24. ^ Kiernan, Paul (2015-09-18). "Brazil Supreme Court Bans Corporate Donations to Politicians and Parties". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2021-08-07.
  25. ^ "Brazil bans corporations from political donations amid corruption scandal". the Guardian. 2015-09-18. Retrieved 2021-08-07.
  26. ^ Boadle, Anthony (2017-10-05). "Brazil's congress sets up fund to cover lack of campaign finance". Reuters. Retrieved 2021-08-07.
  27. ^ "Eleições 2020: conheça as regras e os limites para doações eleitorais" (in Brazilian Portuguese). www.tse.jus.br. Retrieved 2021-08-07.
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Legislation

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Studies

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Press coverage

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