[EL] Obama fundraising and credit cards

Wed Apr 18 11:10:52 PDT 2012

Back in 2008, the Washington Post ran a couple stories on this topic,
including this one
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/28/AR20081
02803413.html> , which noted among other things:

Faced with a huge influx of donations over the Internet, the [Obama]
campaign has also chosen not to use basic security measures to prevent
potentially illegal or anonymous contributions from flowing into its
accounts, aides acknowledged. Instead, the campaign is scrutinizing its
books for improper donations after the money has been deposited.

The Obama organization said its extensive review has ensured that the
campaign has refunded any improper contributions, and noted that Federal
Election Commission rules do not require front-end screening of
donations.

...

When asked whether the campaign takes steps to verify whether a donor's
name matches the name on the credit card used to make a payment, Obama's
campaign replied in an e-mail: "Name-matching is not a standard check
conducted or made available in the credit card processing industry. We
believe Visa and MasterCard do not even have the ability to do this.

"Instead, the campaign does a rigorous comprehensive analysis of online
contributions on the back end of the transaction to determine whether a
contribution is legitimate."

...

Dan Pfeiffer, Obama's communication's director, said that "no
organization can fully insulate itself from these problems. The McCain
campaign has accepted contributions from fraudulent contributors like 'A
for You,' 'Adorable Manabat,' 'The Gun Shop,' and 'Jesus II' and
hundreds of anonymous donors."

I guess something that's unclear to me: Does the Obama campaign do
something differently than any other campaign, especially, say that of
Ron Paul or Michele Bachmann, who have both relied extensively on
small-dollar donors (who gave $200 or less) to fuel their campaigns?

Regards,

Michael Beckel

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
[mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Rick
Hasen
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2012 1:13 PM
To: Lowenstein, Daniel
Cc: law-election at UCI.edu
Subject: [EL] Obama fundraising and credit cards

If anyone replies to Dan's post, please use the subject line above (or
something else descriptive) and rather than the "ELB News and
Commentary" heading.
Thanks.

On 4/18/2012 10:10 AM, Lowenstein, Daniel wrote: 

            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-edi
tion.php

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

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

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

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/04/dubious-donations-illustra
ted-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> <mailto:still at votelaw.com>

  www.votelaw.com/blog<http://www.votelaw.com/blog>
<http://www.votelaw.com/blog> 
  www.edwardstill.com<http://www.edwardstill.com/>
<http://www.edwardstill.com/> 

www.linkedin.com/in/edwardstill<http://www.linkedin.com/in/edwardstill>
<http://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>
<mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu> > wrote:

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

 ng, 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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%2F%3Fp%3D33091&title=A%20Reader%20Complaint%20About%20Obama%20Campaign%
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Posted in campaigns<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59>
<http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=59> ,
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"<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=33088>
<http://electionlawblog.org/?p=33088> 

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-- 
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-8000
949.824.3072 - office
949.824.0495 - fax
rhasen at law.uci.edu
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