If You Can't Vote, You Can't Donate

Liberty
1

Campaign donors must be a legally registered voters in the district the ballot is cast.

All campaign donations must be local, both for politicians and for ballot initiatives. This eliminates “corporate” and other entity donors. It eliminates out of district and out of state donors to local elections.

If it is not legal for you to vote in any given district, you cannot donate to any campaign in that district.

This puts the power back in the hands of the people, the voters. Politicians will have to answer to their constituents. Ballot initiatives will only be influenced by the people they effect.

And, to be effective, any entity that intends to campaign on a specific politician or ballot initiative can only raise funds from registered voters in the district the ballot is cast.

This will have a monumental effect on legislation and our legislators. Issues like voter ID, term limits, and insider trading by individuals in the legislator will be resolved very quickly with the pressure that will be applied by the limited number voters who would available to donate to their campaigns.

To those who will say, that will not provide enough funds in some areas to even run a campaign, those areas do not need big campaigns. All competitors in an election will be limited to the same pool of donors/voters.

247 Likes
2

This is very smart

9 Likes
3

Help me spread the word.
This policy alone would clear up many other issues.

8 Likes
4

Amazing idea

4 Likes
5

The team here needs to give more than 3 votes

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6

Along with voter ID (or else this law is as flawed as our current elections), this would be very beneficial to our election process.

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7

Pretty sure this is already law but it is not really enforced.

1 Like
8

If we can’t get this, on their donation statements, they must indicate whether the donations are from in their district, out of state, etc.

9

I would add that if you are not a resident of a state, you can not donate money to that state’s elections. Doing so completely undermines the purpose of citizen representation. Get Californian’s out of Texas elections.

7 Likes
10

Not a bad idea at all!

Also, I think we should make districts much smaller: Enlarge the House of Representatives

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11

Apologies if I wasn’t clear. My intention is that this policy would do exactly that and more.
No out-of-state money
No out-of-county money
No out-of-district money

2 Likes
12

I think this is a beautifully clean and simple solution.
If PACs are allowed, they should mind the same rule - can only operate within the voting district where they are incorporated.

4 Likes
13

Exactly.

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14

That is true.

15

This and getting rid of super PACs.

1 Like
16

Playing devil’s advocate: would this work in not-L.A. and not-D.C.? Wouldn’t this policy allow rich individuals, such as Warren Buffet in Omaha, to completely dominate their humble communities? To influence an election, all the wealthy people would need to do is buy little apartments in swing states and then throw their money around.

17

Excellent. Let’s test this.

Would it allow rich individuals to dominate?

Yes. But they already dominate. If they were limited to only the district they are registered to vote in, that’s a plus. No more dominating districts they don’t live in. And, if there were one or two individuals dominating in campaign donations in a district, that would be very apparent to the voters in that district. Disclosure laws would still be in place. I believe that would mitigate the effects of their large donations. It would be easy to see which politician or initiative is bought and paid for by the rich guy.

Buying little apartments in swing states? Sure, but at the expense of being able to donate in their permanent/home state.

The point is that you can only influence, with money, the district you are registered in. You get one.

18

That is what this statement does.

“And, to be effective, any entity that intends to campaign on a specific politician or ballot initiative can only raise funds from registered voters in the district the ballot is cast.”

2 Likes
19

“All campaign donations must be local”
→ This restores Laboratories of Republicanism.

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20
  • Donations to candidates should be restricted to those who are registered voters eligible to vote for the candidate in the forthcoming election.
  • Donations should be recorded with local election authority and published before the money can be spent.
  • PAC money should be restricted to issues, cannot be spent for or by a candidate, and cannot use words, sounds, imagery, or any other symbology that implies association with any candidate.
4 Likes