Steil puts pressure on ActBlue’s donor verification policies
(The Center Square) – Following months of investigations into political donation platform ActBlue, Rep. Bryan Steil urged the Federal Election Commission to initiate an emergency rulemaking process requiring more transparency in online donations.
Steil launched a probe into ActBlue’s donor verification policies last year amid his concerns the organization was allowing foreign and fraudulent contributions.
“Illegal and malicious conduct have no place in our elections. Ensuring all parties are complying with federal election law as we approach a presidential election is of utmost importance. I am investigating ActBlue’s lack of transparency in its online donor verification standards,” Steil said in a statement.
Accusations of ActBlue violating or skirting federal campaign finance laws included laundering foreign contributions through prepaid gift cards, and accepting hundreds of donations for $2.50 from the same individual. Unlike the vast majority of other online fundraising platforms, ActBlue does not require a CVV number on donor transactions.
Steil is requesting the FEC prohibit political campaigns from accepting contributions from gift cards or other prepaid credit cards, and require them to obtain and verify the CVV of all online credit and debit donations.
“ActBlue’s practices invite the possibility of foreign donations, and allowing political committees to accept donations from gift cards or other prepaid credit cards promote the appearance and the very real possibility that straw donors are making campaign donations with funds provided by another person or an unlawful donor including a foreign national,” the letter reads. “These issues present a serious loophole to the transparency and integrity of the campaign donation process, and an emergency rulemaking is required to rectify these issues.”
The requested rules would also require political campaigns to get the affirmative consent of donors before they make a recurring contribution.
