Seattle Elections Code Administrative Rules
The City of Seattle Video Voters’ Guide Administrative Rules
1. GENERAL
1.1 Joint Production: If the Executive Director of the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission (Executive Director) and King County agree, the County and the City will jointly produce a Video Voters' Guide (Guide) for the Primary and General Elections. The parties will equitably share the cost of producing and distributing the Guide.
1.2 Editions: Two editions of the Guide will be produced; one for Seattle, and one for King County. These rules govern the production of the Seattle Guide.
1.3 Availability of Copies: The Executive Director will make a copy of the Guide available to the Seattle Channel for broadcast during the two weeks before the Primary Election and the two weeks before the General Election. The Executive Director will provide copies of the Guide to the City's central library for members of the public to view on library equipment or to borrow.
1.4 Candidate Invitations: The Executive Director will invite every person who files for Mayor, City Council, City Attorney, Municipal Court Judge, or Seattle School Board to participate in the Primary Election Guide. The Executive Director will invite every person whose name appears on the General Election Ballot for those offices to participate in the General Election Guide. The County will be responsible for inviting candidates for King County offices, and such other offices as the County deems appropriate.
1.5 Ballot Issue Committee Invitations: The Executive Director will invite each City ballot issue committee appointed to draft an argument in the voters' pamphlet to participate in the Guide. Each committee must select one representative to present its views in the Guide. The County will be responsible for inviting County ballot issue committee representatives.
2. FILMING THE STATEMENTS
2.1 Filming -- Times: Statements for the Primary Election Guide will be filmed during the first two weeks immediately following the close of the period for filing Declarations of Candidacy for City and County office. A schedule of available time slots will be available from the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission office, Suite 4010, Seattle Municipal Tower, 700 Fifth Avenue one month before filming begins. Statements for the General Election Guide will be filmed from seven to nine weeks before the General Election and thereafter, at the discretion of the Executive Director and the County. Any candidate or ballot issue committee representative who cannot be filmed during this time may be excluded from the Guide.
2.2 Fee: Each candidate and ballot issue representative will be asked to pay $100.00 per appearance for each Guide in which he or she will appear to help defray the cost of filming and production. Candidates who reuse their Primary Election Guide statement in the General Election Guide will be asked to pay $50.00 for their appearance in the General Election Guide to defray the cost of production.
2.3 Fee Waiver: Fees will be waived for any candidate or ballot issue committee representative who can show that his or her committee fund does not contain $100.00 that is not already obligated, either at the time of receiving the invitation to participate or at the time of filming the statement.
2.4 Time Allotment: Each candidate or ballot issue committee representative shall be allotted one-half hour in which no more than 15 minutes shall be used to record a version or versions of a two-minute statement, which will not be edited. No more than ten minutes of the half-hour shall be used for the candidate or ballot issue committee representative to select the unedited two-minute statement to be broadcast.
2.5 Closed-Captioning: Each candidate or ballot issue committee representative must bring to the recording session one typed paper copy of the two-minute statement for retention by the filming crew. The statement will be used to transcribe the recording for closed-captioning.
2.6 Filming Conditions: All candidates for the same position shall be filmed in the same production studio, in front of the identical background, with the word "candidate," name, position sought, and party in partisan races, on the screen below the candidate's image at all times. All ballot issue committee representatives for or against the same issue shall be recorded in the same production studio in front of the identical background, with the ballot name heading as it will appear on the ballot and the word "Pro" or "Con" as appropriate on the screen below the representative's image at all times. The shoulders and head of the candidate or ballot issue committee representative shall appear on the recording. Candidates or ballot issue committee representatives may not wear hats, buttons, or any other article of clothing bearing an insignia, or uniforms, including but not limited to judicial robes. They may not use props or include other persons in the recording.
2.7 Teleprompter Use. Candidates and ballot issue representatives will have the opportunity to use the Seattle Channel's Teleprompter during their scheduled appointment. Only employees of the Seattle Channel will be permitted to operate the Teleprompter. An electronic file of the candidate or committee's statement must be delivered to the Seattle Channel at least two business days prior to the taping appointment. If the electronic file is not supplied in a timely manner, the candidate or ballot issue representative may be denied the opportunity to use the Teleprompter.
2.8 Limitations on Statements: The two-minute statements must not include obscene, profane, libelous, or defamatory matter, or language that may impair broadcast of the statements.
2.9 Assistance: Each candidate or ballot issue committee representative may bring an assistant to the recording session, but that assistant shall not be seen or heard on the recording.
2.10 Order of Presentation: Each position will be introduced on the relevant Guide with an explanation of the duties of the office. Candidate statements shall be presented in the Guide in the order in which the candidate names will appear on the ballot. Each ballot issue will be introduced on the Guide in the order in which it will appear on the ballot. The representative in favor of the ballot issue will speak first followed directly by the representative opposing the ballot issue.
These Rules were adopted by the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission on August 15, 2011, and will be effective on the date they are filed with the City Clerk. The Commission members voting to take this action were:
Bob Mahon, Chair
Bill Sherman, Vice Chair
Tarik Burney
Lynne Iglitzin
David Mendoza
Amit Ranade
STATE OF WASHINGTON
CITY OF SEATTLE
I, WAYNE BARNETT, Executive Director of the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission, State of Washington, do hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of the Video Voters' Guide Administrative Rules, implementing SMC 2.14, as adopted on August 15, 2011.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of August, 2011.
_______________________________ WAYNE BARNETT, Executive Director