Seattle’s unique Democracy Voucher program provides registered voters with four $25 vouchers to donate to eligible candidates. The program has successfully flooded city elections with small, publicly-funded donations that have reduced the influence of powerful donors while giving residents unprecedented freedom to support their preferred campaigns. Interestingly, many Seattleites that have contributed to candidates using the Democracy Voucher program have also donated vouchers to opposing candidates running for the same position. This behavior may seem strange, but it likely reflects voters’ complicated and overlapping candidate preferences.
The interactive chart below shows Democracy Voucher contributions to eligible candidates as of March 19th. Each circle represents a campaign, and the circle sizes are directly proportional to the number of vouchers assigned to that campaign. The lines connecting the circles vary in thickness to represent the number of shared individual donors each candidate has with every other candidate.
