Public Disclosure Commission approves rule change to allow parties to include ballot measures on sample ballots  

The Washington Public Disclosure Commission approved rules at its June 26 regular meeting to allow political parties and committees to show their position on ballot measures on sample ballots.  

The PDC approved the changes as part of an emergency rulemaking process, which would allow the changes to be implemented in time for the 2025 election cycle. The new rules will be in effect for 120 days, which can be extended if the PDC pursues a permanent rule change.   

Bona fide state party committees are allowed to have two kinds of accounts: Exempt and non-exempt. These committees can accept unlimited contributions from any donor for their exempt accounts, but are restricted to using those funds to promote voter registration, get-out-the-vote campaigns, and other uses such as sample ballots, that do not count as a contribution to any individual candidate. They can’t use the funds to support individual candidates or ballot measures, for example, through advertising, monetary contributions or signs.   

However, sample ballots (including slate cards) funded through exempt accounts can show the party’s preferred candidates as a group, as long as they don’t include advocacy statements or promote individual candidates, or include candidates’ positions on issues or platforms. Because they are exempt from contribution limits, sample ballots do not need to be reported or attributed as contributions to any individual campaign.        

Under previous PDC rules, sample ballots that included a party’s position on any ballot proposition were not exempt from contribution limits and could not be paid for using exempt funds. The new rule allows parties to indicate support or opposition to any local or state ballot proposition, so long as the number of ballot propositions appearing on the sample ballot does not outnumber the number of candidates on the sample ballot. 

The Washington State Democratic Party submitted a petition in March asking the Commission to consider the change that would allow parties to show their preference on ballot measures on sample ballots that remain exempt from contribution limits. The state Republican Party also expressed support for the request.