[EL] ELB News and Commentary 4/18/12

Wed Apr 18 10:10:31 PDT 2012

            That the Obama online fundraising system is set up to easily facilitate violation of campaign finance laws has been pretty thoroughly documented by Power Line.  See:

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/04/dubious-donations-2012-edition.php

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/04/dubious-donations-illustrated.php

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/04/dubious-donations-illustrated-bin-laden-edition.php

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/04/dubious-donations-contd.php

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/04/dubious-donations-illustrated-illegal-contributor-edition.php

            I don't know for a fact whether the Obama people had to override defaults to employ a system so lax, but it seems likely, given how unusual their system is.  Furthermore, there was similar documentation of the same problem with Obama's 2008 online fundraising.  So even if the campaign did no overriding, it can surely be charged with knowledge that it is facilitating illegal contributions (whether because the contributions themselves are illegal because they exceed limits, come from foreign sources, etc., or because they will not be properly reported).

            Given the unfortunate rise of partisanship in election law, it is not surprising that the great majority of people on this list have been uninterested in this matter, which would surely be raising a storm if it were, say, the Romney online fundraising that were in question.  But I have been surprised that the smaller number of Republican voices on this listserv have not raised the issue.  Kudos, by the way, to Ed Still for looking into it in a disinterested manner.

             Best,

             Daniel H. Lowenstein
             Director, Center for the Liberal Arts and Free Institutions (CLAFI)
             UCLA Law School
             405 Hilgard
             Los Angeles, California 90095-1476
             310-825-5148

________________________________
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Edward Still [still at votelaw.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2012 8:36 AM
To: law-election at UCI.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] ELB News and Commentary 4/18/12

I just made a contribution to Obama under part of my legal name that does not match my credit card name. "Your donation was successful," the site told me.

So, is the last name enough to clear the credit card validation check?

Edward Still
Edward Still Law Firm LLC
130 Wildwood Parkway, Suite 108, PMB 304
Birmingham AL 35209
205-320-2882 (voice & fax)
  still at votelaw.com<mailto:still at votelaw.com>
  www.votelaw.com/blog<http://www.votelaw.com/blog>
  www.edwardstill.com<http://www.edwardstill.com/>
  www.linkedin.com/in/edwardstill<http://www.linkedin.com/in/edwardstill><http://www.linkedin.com/in/edwardstill>

On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 9:40 AM, Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu<mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>> wrote:

A Reader Complaint About Obama Campaign’s Credit Card Policies<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=33091>
Posted on April 17, 2012 3:15 pm<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=33091> by Rick Hasen<http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>

A regular reader (who also regularly disagrees with me) sends along the following comment:

Rick, I’m a bit curious: Is it that you don’t believe the story about Obama’s credit card processing software being set to accept donations under names and addresses that don’t match the card used? (You should, I tested it myself. You could prove it yourself with a few minutes effort.) Or is it that you just don’t give a damn? This matter is very troubling to me: A major candidate for President, already holding the office, is, for the second time, deliberately (It required over-riding default settings.) managing his collection of donations in such a way as to facilitate violations of campaign finance laws. You know, the guy who’s job description is “seeing the law faithfully executed”? And the media won’t bother to report it, and people who make a big fuss about these sorts of laws just blow it off. I might think some of these laws foolish, and some of them even unconstitutional, but deliberate lawlessness on the part of candidates for public office ought to be worth reporting, and caring about.

>From what I’ve seen of campaigns and audit, I have a hard time believing that the Obama campaign (or any other presidential campaign) which I have seen has been taking steps to affirmatively encourage taking illegal donations (either from foreign sources, or other prohibited sources).  But I thought I would post this because I do receive fairly frequent complaints on this issue.  (I should add that I have not verified that the software has been set in any special way, or that this can facilitate fraud.)  And if there is something worth investigating, now the word is “out there” and people can investigate.

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Posted in campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>, chicanery<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=12> | Comments Off
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