Washington’s Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) would develop and adopt rules for making contributions to state and local electoral campaigns through text message under new legislation proposed today by Sen. Andy Billig, D-Spokane.
“Updating our campaign finance laws to reflect modern technologies will broaden participation in the election and campaign process, which leads to a healthier democracy,” said Billig.
“We’ve seen charities and nonprofits successfully solicit donations via text message in recent years, and since 2012, people have been able to make contributions to federal electoral campaigns through text messages. By making text message contributions an option for state and local campaigns, we can make the election process more accessible for people, especially young people, who often use their phones as their primary means of communication and commerce.”
SB 6097 directs the PDC to adopt rules by 2015 allowing text message contributions to both political candidates and ballot proposals. These new rules will limit text message contributions to $10 per text and $50 total per candidate or ballot proposition in a single election cycle.
