Political Reform

California Democrats believe that a healthy democracy is based on clean elections: public financing of political campaigns at all levels of government, campaign spending limits, restoration of the fairness doctrine and a strong role for political parties. We will fight the culture of corruption, cronyism and incompetence in politics that has inflicted a great cost upon the American people.  We demand open and fraud-free elections and incontrovertible government accountability to the electorate. We will ensure that all eligible voters can vote, and that all votes are counted as cast and can be verified by the voter. We support public ownership of all election processes, software and equipment. We will insist that officeholders respond honestly and effectively to constituent needs through transparent and open public service.

To promote honest leadership and open government, California Democrats will:

• Enhance the democratic process by ensuring an educated citizenry, equal opportunity for influence, honest public debate, competitive elections and robust civic participation;
• Support and implement clean money legislation at the local, state and federal levels.
• Uphold the Voting Rights Act and its implementation in letters, practice, and spirit and improve voter outreach and education efforts, especially for youth and underserved communities;
• Increase voter participation by advocating for extended voting hours and/or days, scheduling elections on weekends, or by declaring Election Day a holiday;
• Investigate and prosecute any and all forms of voter intimidation, including improper solicitation of documentation; 
• Demand transparency in every stage with voting system software (including open-source software); national standards for electronic voting machine certification; external, non-partisan certifying groups that publicly disclose testing results; reliable voter-verifiable systems with a paper ballot as the ballot of record; robust auditing procedures that include absentee ballots; updated and thorough recount procedures; public ownership of all voting systems and software;
• Support candidates who pledge full accountability to the electorate, and hold them to that pledge; including regular reports, in person, to the members of the DSCC and their constituents in their home districts; 
• Encourage, where feasible, instant run-off elections, especially in primaries; and
• Encourage no concessions by candidates until all ballots are counted.