End Influence of Money in Politics Now

We all know it pervades our "democratic" system: greedy, self-interested, moneyed interests who do everything they can to sway government to give them what they want at the expense of everyone else. It's time to recognize that rights are not absolute and that if we want a true democracy, we must rein in some rights for the benefit of all. Therefore, proposed:

AN ACT Relating to protecting voters from undue influence by special interests who have financial interests in government activity; adding a new title to the Revised Code of Washington to be codified as Title 1337 RCW; creating new sections.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that special interests, being motivated by profit, and having influence within government, use their influence to enrich themselves, rather than to promote the effective functioning of government to benefit all the people; that wielding such influence results in a degradation of the rights of the rest of the people; that the conflict of interests of lobbying for, and receiving, government favors bypasses the democratic process and is incompatible with a functioning democracy; that no right, not even the First Amendment, is too important to be sacrificed for the sake of democracy; that if necessary, individual rights must be surrendered in order to restore the power of self-government to the people.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. (1) The only individuals ("covered persons") to be affected by this act are those who are 18 years or older, and derive five (5) percent of the individual's income from government sources, and therefore have a conflict of interest in efforts to lobby government for their own benefit; they include, but are not limited to, owners, shareholders, and employees of companies with large government contracts.
(2) (a) "Government sources" includes all income, contracts, sales, direct subsidies, and any other type of money or valuable goods, from all levels of government in the United States, including the federal, tribal, state, county, and local governments.
(b) An employee of an organization receiving funds from government sources will consider the percentage of their income from that organization to be derived from government sources at the same percentage as the organization as a whole.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. (1) The Secretary of State and the director of elections in each county shall:
(a) require on all voter registration forms, under penalty of perjury, the percentage of income derived from government sources for the voter being registered;
(b) store such information with each voter record;
(c) require that voters update such information on a separate form, under penalty of perjury, should the percentage increase by more than two (2) percentage points up to 30 days before an election in which the voter participates;
(d) make such number available to all information requests involving voter records.
(2) The director of elections in each county shall:
(a) implement a system of connecting, absent any other potentially identifying information so as to protect ballot secrecy, a voter's percentage of income derived from government sources to each vote cast by that voter;
(b) reduce the relative value of that vote by that percentage during all intermediate and final tallies, where a vote of one (1) will represent a voter without any income from government sources (thus, no reduction), a vote of zero (0) will represent a voter who receives all of his income from government sources (thus, a reduction of 1), and a vote of half (0.5) will represent a voter who receives half of his income from government sources (thus, a reduction of 0.5).

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. (1) All Washington State employers shall, upon request, furnish the Secretary of State with employment records, including amount of compensation, for any of their employees who are Washington State residents.
(2) The Secretary of State shall ensure that each voter's recorded percentage of income from government sources is accurate, for no less than five (5) percent of the total voter records per year, but no individual's record may be included in that five (5) percent more than once every 10 years.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and takes effect June 29, 2011.