At least in the abstract, Americans Elect may have a pitch some voters find compelling. The outfit intends to spend heavily to gain a slot on the presidential ballot nationwide, then create a bipartisan ticket that voters would help choose online. The plan, however, is not without flaws.
Americans Elect hasn't had much luck finding willing candidates, but it is sitting on tens of millions of dollars and has collected the signatures needed to qualify for several states' ballots. Complicating matters, the group's organizers refuse to disclose where its money has come from, and has adopted a series of sketchy measures, including the ability to ignore the results of Americans Elect's online candidate referendum.
BuzzFeed reports today on another move that's likely to raise eyebrows.
A deep-pocketed group hoping to field a third candidate in November has quietly shifted its fundraising focus earlier this month to serve a curious goal, a spokeswoman has acknowledged to BuzzFeed: All money raised by Americans Elect will, for the forseeable future, be given to the millionaires who created it. [...]
Americans Elect, whose leaders have said they expect to spend $40 million this year getting on the ballot in 50 states and building a sophisticated platform for a secure online primary, casts the move as one in service of its populist goal of having no donor give more than $10,000. But its immediate effect may make it extremely difficult for the group, which is heavily bankrolled by its chairman, financier and philanthropist Peter Ackerman, to raise any more money at all, and particularly the kind of small, grassroots donations it seeks on its website.
So, interested voters are expected to pony up, not to advance the Americans Elect cause, but to pay back the millionaires who secretly got the group up and running? It seems like a tough sell.
I realize Americas Elect is in a position to have an effect on the presidential race, and has secured a ballot line in several key states. But as near as I can tell, it's an overly secretive, well-financed gimmick, eager to play electoral mischief for reasons that are known only to its leaders.
Leave a Comment:
Yet another reason why we need people in Congress willing to overturn "Citizens United"!! Not only can the rich & corporate "finance" the candidates they want, they do so secretly and it's legal, yeah right......
At what point does this become as a pyramid or ponzi scheme?
I thought a pyramid was where the "donations" of later "investors" are used to
pay offreimburse the earlier investors?Exactly!
And, anyone with a few bucks to invest, I have this bridge in Brooklyn. . .
Unless I'm missing something, it's not a ponzi/pyramid scheme because earlier donors can't make a profit. What it sounds like to me is that they are trying to recoup some wasted money and shut down the operation. Why anyone would donate is beyond me, though.
I think Dan is correct here. It isn't a ponzi/pyramid scheme, but it is another internet scam. There really isn't a difference between this and the websites that promise to make you thousands of dollars per month if you give them 300$ upfront in cash. The thing I am still struggling to figure out is how any of this is legal....
If all this money that was spent needlessly on campaigns were combined wouldn't the national debt problem have gone away by now. It still urks me how much money is being thrown away by the same people who are complaining about the debt.
The double-digit millions being spent by corporations and the rich are not even close to what they pay in taxes, yet they buy the Congresscritter puppets that would lower their taxes when they actually pay little to nothing at all.
Just like peeing in a cup to get unemployment that you paid into. What is that all about besides padding someone's pocket? Are banks now going to make you take drug tests to get YOUR money out of the bank? And charge you for the tests besides?
Well, the names they have mentioned as potential "dream ticket" members are more like nightmares.... so this doesn't surprise me.
never did trust this group. especially since they never did full disclosure.
I know they appeal to the "left-of-center" punditry who are stuck between playing half-bat@!$%# crazy or inventing a "middle" party with a Democratic platform, but is anyone outside of DC even aware of this group, let alone donating money to it?
Anyone who donates to Americans Elect at this point is selling their car for gas money...
Why hasn't anyone considered the possibility that the initial backers are simply trying to reimburse themselves in order to retroactively abide by the site's by-laws which stipulate that no donor can give more than $10,000? Seems to me that a lot of people are unduly frightened by this new, democratic, internet approach to governing. Let's all work to get the kinks out and truly open up the process!
I agree!
Voting on the internet may be a good idea but I have some real concerns about this:
I have been searching Americans Elect and I really can't find out much about them - for instance, they registered in a few states as a political party. So if they are a political party, what do they stand for?? I can't seem to find that out. Who funds them?
The Tea Party proposed internet elections in "Tea Party Patriots....." by Meckler and Martin. Is Americans Elect associated with the Tea Party? It may not be, but I am not really sure. I know the people listed in the Wikipedia page on Americans Elect have all been working for the Republican Party in one manner or another. Given the current status of the Republican Party, I am not so trustful of any scheme they propose.
Once you give information over the internet, no matter what it is, you have very few REAL protections against it being misused. Most of us pay our bills online, and I have been notified a number of times that my information may have been inadvertantly compromised. I do know that companies I do business with, will sell my information unless I tell them not to. Right now, there is no way to determine how a person voted, short a DNA test. Is it possible that ANYONE can find out how you voted online with a little computer skill? Are we ready for that? How would that information be used by other people?
Unless Americans Elect becomes a little more open with information, I wouldn't trust them.
The Tea Party is organized around ISSUE POSITIONS. Not so, Americans Elect. AE is organized around PROCESS REFORM. They offer an online primary, and candidates that are chosen by the AE membership. The rich guys don't put in their own candidates. It is an OPEN process. Join us!
William J. Kelleher, Ph.D.
Twitter: wjkno1
Email: Internetvoting@gmail.com
Blog: http://tinyurl.com/IV4All
Author of Internet Voting Now!
i don't want to return to the gilded age when the rich chose the political direction of the country.
all that ever got us was depression,recession and the death of most opportunities for the working class to good education, poor to no health care and old age poverty.
AE is NOT SECRETIVE where it counts.
The important question for a candidate selection process is 'how open and transparent is the PROCESS?' Who cares who pays the bills? If the process is open to any registered voter, and open to self-selected and drafted candidates - and all w/o policy bias - who the hell cares who is paying the bills?
The rich guys aren't selecting candidates in AE, like they do in the two-party system. All the candidates come before the primary voters FOR FREE. The Repub candidates have to spend millions to go before their primary voters. One or two millionaires can keep a candidate like Gingrich in the running, no matter what the voters think. Not so in AE.
Our politics will never be democratized if guys like you try to knock it down w/ smears, before it ever gets off the ground. Every lover of democracy should support AE - and be quick about it!
William J. Kelleher, Ph.D.
Twitter: wjkno1
Email: Internetvoting@gmail.com
Blog: http://tinyurl.com/IV4All
Author of Internet Voting Now!