Voters’ Right to Know (VRTK) is a social welfare advocacy group that promotes transparency in elections and the disclosure of political spending. ¹ It is led by and has partnered with left-of-center individuals and organizations. ²

VRTK stands against what it sees as the “vicious cycle of unaccountability, repressiveness, and disengagement” in American democracy. It seeks to force any and all political messages to fully disclose their donors. To effect this change, VRTK partners with left-of-center groups, leaders, and professors to research election data, develop policies, and run state-level ballot initiatives. ³

Activities

VRTK was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. ⁴

In 2016, VRTK attempted to run a ballot initiative in California that would ensure a systematic disclosure of all political funding in the state. ⁵ It ultimately failed to get the measure on the ballot. ⁶

As of September 2022, VRTK had not had any news updates since November 2020. Its latest story was an update on Measure 2, a ballot initiative changing election procedures in Alaska. ⁷

Partners

As of October 2022, Voters’ Right to Know had 10 official partnering organizations: the Analyst Institute, California Clean Money Campaign, California Forward, Campaign Legal Center, Carnegie Mellon University, Common Cause, End Citizens United (ECU), MapLight, Represent.Us, and YouGov. ⁸

Analyst Institute is a research institute that works with left-of-center organizations to measure the influence of their outreach. It assists VRTK by studying the effects of its research. ⁹

California Clean Money Campaign is a nonprofit group that advocates for tighter election fundraising restrictions. It acts as VRTK’s grassroots organization, having collected over 30,000 signatures for its 2016 project. ¹⁰

California Forward is a left-of-center advocacy and policy group which advises VRTK on strategy. ¹¹

Campaign Legal Center is an advocacy group aligned with left-of-center interests that supports strict enforcement of campaign finance laws. It develops VRTK’s model law. ¹²

Carnegie Mellon University, specifically professor of psychology and “behavioral economics” specialist Daniel Oppenheimer, contributes to VRTK’s research on the cognitive ramifications of voter, campaign, and donor disclosures. ¹³

Common Cause is a liberal advocacy group focusing on campaign finance law. ¹⁴

End Citizens United (ECU) is a Democratic Party-aligned political action committee (PAC). ¹⁵

MapLight is a left-of-center research organization that reports on legislative affairs and uses an online database to track financial activity in politics. MapLight manages VRTK’s project on digital political disclosure. ¹⁶

Represent.Us is a legally “nonpartisan” organization focused on reducing what it claims are the negative effects of campaign funding in American politics. ¹⁷

YouGov is a British international market research firm which develops VRTK’s research tools. ¹⁸

Funding

In 2020, Voters’ Right to Know had a total revenue of $130,000, total expenses of $169,500, and net assets of $10,074. ¹⁹

Voters’ Right to Know claims to be transparent about its donors who give more than $250. These funders are Larry Birenbaum, Ann and John Doerr, Jim Greer, Jim Heerwagen, Laura and Gary Lauder, Lenny Mendonca, Simone Otus Coxe, and Dan Schryer. ²⁰

Leadership

Voters’ Right to Know has a steering committee made up of Jim Greer, the founder of gaming website Kongregate and CounterPAC; Lenny Mendonca, a director emeritus of McKinsey & Company and co-chair of California Forward; Daniel G. Newman, the co-founder and president of MapLight; John Pudner, the executive director of Take Back Our Republic; and Ann M. Ravel, the chair of the Federal Election Commission under President Barack Obama. ²¹

Jim Heerwagen is the chairman of Voters’ Right to Know. In this role he focuses on promoting the organization’s initiatives on both the national and state levels concerning government responsiveness. In 2016 he led VRTK’s ballot initiative in California, a proposed amendment which would have reformed the state’s election finance laws but was never put on the ballot. ²² Heerwagen co-founded and served as CEO of IQVine, served as president and CEO of Sunvolt Nanosystems, president and CEO NtechRA, and founder of Bridge Partners. He sits on the boards of California Forward, MapLight, HealthTrust of Silicon Valley, and on the board of visitors of Duke University School of Engineering. ²³

Jay Costa is the director of VRTK. He was formerly the executive director of CounterPAC, an anti-“dark money” group, and the program director at MapLight. ²⁴

Darrin Lim, the treasurer of VRTK, is the co-founder and partner of Politicom Law LLP. He is a member of the steering committee of the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL). ²⁵

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