Voters’ Right to Know Releases Six General Principles of Effective Transparency Policy to Ensure Californians Can Know the True Sources of Money Behind Political Messages
San Francisco, CA – May 24, 2018—The Voters’ Right to Know Project (VRTK), a nonpartisan effort to advance state-level policy surrounding the transparency of political spending, released its Transparency Standard today, comprised of six general principles it has identified as being fundamental to effective transparency policy. The comprehensive set of solutions together represent a new standard of transparency policy—one that will give voters access to the information they need to represent their own interests at the ballot box.
“The health of our democracy relies on the ability of voters to make informed decisions,” said Jay Costa, executive director of Voters’ Right to Know. “Right now the rules to ensure transparency of the interests behind our politics are fundamentally broken, and Americans are being left in the dark. Even foreign governments are able to spend money to secretly influence our elections. Our country is in need of urgent action—if Congress won’t step up, then the states must take the lead in standing up for the rights of voters.”
The Voters’ Right to Know Project has translated its six principles of transparency policy into a set of California-specific policy priorities, which it has shared with the California gubernatorial candidates, including:
- Closing loopholes surrounding which political ads require transparency – for example, to reveal the money behind sham “issue” ads across all media platforms
- Closing loopholes that allow special interests to hide their identities by funneling money through shell organizations
- Requiring large digital advertising platforms (e.g., Facebook), as well as all high-volume recipients of political money, to file transparency reports
- Completing improvements to Cal-Access, California’s central hub of transparency information, so that it is easy to use and doesn’t crash when it is needed most
“Voters have a right to know who’s funding political campaigns,” said Ann Ravel, a steering committee member for Voters’ Right to Know and former Chair of the Federal Election Commission and California Fair Political Practices Commission. “VRTK’s transparency standard would make plainly visible the true sources of money being spent to influence voter decisions and our state’s policies. This transparency will give Californians the tools they need to make choices in their own interest.”
“Special interests use dark money to buy election results and policies that favor them, often at great cost to ordinary Californians,” said Jim Heerwagen, Chair of Voters’ Right to Know. “This is the foundation of a regime of effective disclosure laws and enforcement that will expose secret money. It is designed to keep the people of California in control of their government.”
Editor/Producer note:
Voters’ Right to Know Executive Director, Jay Costa, is available to discuss VRTK’s transparency policy principles and why enshrining California voters with a constitutional ‘right to know’ is essential.
About the Voters’ Right to Know Project
Voters’ Right to Know, a 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organization, is a first-of-its-kind legal and political project designed to catalyze the advancement of effective transparency policy across the United States, including a constitutional right to know the money behind elections and lawmaking. For more about VRTK visit: http://vrtk.org.
Media contact:
Pamela Behrsin
Voters’ Right to Know
415.299.0898
