The Open and Accountable Elections program’s purpose is to eliminate actual or perceived corruption. Specifically, it is designed to ensure that government actions are taken in a manner that is consistent with what is best for everyone in the community, rather than for the benefit of wealthy campaign donors alone. Making the government accountable to everyone is strongly aligned with the City’s equity goals – race, disability, gender, income, neighborhood, citizenship/immigration status, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and other important measures of equity. The interests of these groups are rarely represented when only serving the interests of wealthy donors or when it is perceived that that is what local government does.
Further, the Open and Accountable Elections program is being carried out in a manner that is consistent with the City’s equity goals. Because one of the program goals over multiple election cycles is to increase political engagement across the City, care is being taken to ensure that implementation decisions are being handled in the most inclusive manner practicable.
Ultimately, once the 2020 election cycles are over, there will be data to measure whether the program is meeting these important goals which are central to its mission. It will take additional election cycles before this data is sufficient enough to really measure the program, but the 2020 election cycles will give the program its first data to begin measurement. This data will begin to emerge in FY2020-21 and will be published near the end of the fiscal year or at the beginning of the following one. It will be reflected in performance measures in future budget requests as well as a public report every other year (to coincide with election cycles being every other year).
The OAE program will track demographic information of both donors and candidates that volunteer into the system. The data will be used to determine process improvement strategies in engaging not just communities of color and those with disabilities but with other marginalized communities as well.