“Democracy Dollars” Initiative Now Heads to Bernalillo County Commission for placement on November 2018 General Election Ballot in Albuquerque

For Immediate Release:
Friday, August 10, 2018
Contact: Andrea Serrano, (505) 688-1395, Heather Ferguson, (505)980-9086 or Javier Benavidez, (505)315-3596

Albuquerque, NM, Friday, August 10, — Albuquerque’s interim City Clerk Trina Gurule has just certified that the ABQ Democracy Dollars initiative has submitted the required number of petition signatures (19,480, or 20% of voters in the last city election) to place their ballot question on the November 2018 general election ballot in Albuquerque. In fact, the coalition collected far beyond the needed threshold, submitting nearly 28,000 signatures in total last Tuesday.

“Signature collectors worked hard day in and day out throughout the fourth hottest summer on record and had close to 30,000 conversations with Albuquerque voters about this effort to improve Albuquerque’s public financing of candidates and expand who’s participating in our local democracy,” said Andrea Serrano of Organizers in the Land of Enchantment, one of the main collectors of signatures this summer. “We’re thrilled that Albuquerque voters will get to have their say in November and we’re so thankful to the over 100 signature collectors who made this incredible effort happen in our city.”

The proposal now moves to the Bernalillo County Commission for a hearing on Tuesday, August 14th at 5:00PM, where Commissioners must grant the City of Albuquerque permission to utilize the November 6th ballot for the ABQ Democracy Dollars ballot question. The New Mexico Secretary of State’s deadline for receiving such ballot questions is August 28th, 2018.

If approved by city voters in November, ABQ Democracy Dollars will allow voters themselves to direct public funding to the city candidates of their choice. The program, which will use an existing city public financing fund, will also strengthen publicly financed candidates’ ability to compete with the big money spent by privately financed candidates and PACs. In last year’s city election, fewer than 350 donors gave three quarters of all cash contributions to privately financed candidates, with the average from each individual amounting to about $3,000.

More information about the ABQ Democracy Dollars initiative can be found at www.burquebucks.com.

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About
This direct voter initiative is a project of ABQ Democracy Dollars, a coalition of community groups including Common Cause New Mexico, the Center for Civic Policy,  Equality New Mexico (EQNM), Organizers in the Land of Enchantment (OLE), the South West Organizing Project (SWOP) and the Working Families Party of New Mexico.