Burn them!

Nothing more undemocratic or irresponsible than our taxes going to a slush fund of arbitrary dispersal to candidates in an ad-hoc system.

"...Council President Lorena Gonzalez's uncontested seat..."

Shouldn't that be "open seat" rather than "uncontested" given that Claire Grant, Sara Nelson, Alex Tsimerman, David Ishii, and Rebecca Williamson are all running for that position? Five candidates seems pretty 'contested' to me.

@1,

Didn't you guys vote on it? If they were voted in then there's nothing more DEMOCRATIC than that. That's literally what democracy is.

And if one were to burn them, where would that money ultimately end up? I mean, it's already been collected, right?

@3: True, but junk mail is junk mail.

I'm telling ya - Stranger branded microwave popcorn with a Seattle election season message on every bag. Would be a fabulous fundraiser. You should also sell creative marriage announcement spots. For a price, a Stranger writer will pen a pithy wedding announcement for the lucky couple. $$$$$$$!

@1: "Nothing more undemocratic"
Yes. But the problem they attempt to solve (albeit imperfectly) is the power that money brings to politics. Votes are distributed one per person. But as long as money speaks (and according to the US Supreme Court, it does) them what has more money get to speak louder. Solve that problem and the voucher problem can go away.

But to solve that problem, you are going to have to bring it to the public's attention. And the gatekeepers of that attention are also the beneficiaries of a highly funded political process. The press sells the advertising time and space. So they are not likely going to give voice to anything that threat ~{po ~poz~ppo[NO CARRIER]

If the Republicans were capable of putting a non-crazy candidate forward, I would give them all of my democracy vouchers in a hot second. Not that I would ever vote Republican, but the Seattle political monoculture is very unhealthy.

@8: At the risk of blemishing your reputation with my kudos, that was awesome.