Transparency Key to Any Attempt to Reduce Electoral Extremism

There is tepid hope in a movement known as Americans Elect, which strives to reduce the divisiveness so rampant in the country's politics today.

Using technology, the nonprofit organization seeks to be sort of a third presidential political party, allowing voters to go online and choose the next president. It's not a popularity poll but a legitimate attempt to get a candidate on the ballot who appeals to a wide swath of American voters, not just those on the ideological extremes.

The group already has made the ballot in Michigan, Florida, Nevada, Kansas and Alaska. It is seeking access to the ballots in all 50 states. It is a well-funded force to be reckoned with.

As outlined by St. Louis Post-Dispatch Washington bureau chief Bill Lambrecht on Monday, Americans Elect will allow voters to nominate, question and winnow their own presidential candidates. Those candidates will be narrowed to six finalists in online voting in April.

In June, each of the finalists — should he or she choose to participate — will have to select a running mate from a party other than his/her own. Online voting will select the winning pair, who then will be able to use Americans Elect's ballot access to wage a national campaign.

The group is flush with cash and full of heavy hitters from both Democratic and Republican backgrounds. It appears to be the most serious attempt to produce a national alternative to the nation's top two dominant parties since the Ross Perot candidacy in 1996 gave birth to the Reform Party.

Unfortunately, the movement suffers from one of the same ills that poisons the rest of the national political system: the pervasive influence of anonymous donations.

"I don't see why it's a big deal," Webster told Lambrecht, in explaining the group's position on allowing anonymous donations.

We think it's a very big deal. In politics, money matters, and as long as the source of that money is secret, voters will wonder if the game is rigged.

Much of the known early donations to Americans Elect, for instance, came from Wall Street hedge-fund investors. That will raise suspicions with any voter unhappy with the financial sector.

What happens after Americans Elect selects a presidential ticket and those candidates start raising money? Surely, some of that money will come from those who created the organization. There is nothing wrong with that, but some voters will want to connect those dots to see if any deep-pocketed donors have undue influence. What do the investors of Americans Elect want? For now, the organization says it has no policy agenda. Its secret funding, though, leaves open that question.

Our system is broken in part because groups like the Karl Rove-led American Crossroads can wage negative political campaigns against candidates without voters being able to see who is behind the attack ads. Even the League of Women Voters, a well-respected organization with a rich history in fostering high-minded political discussion, has waded into the pool of anonymous donations, shielding the source of some of its funding.

League officials and Americans Elect offer similar reasons for the secrecy.

"Given the political climate, many donors don't want to incur retribution from the party," Americans Elect spokeswoman Ileana Wachtel told us.

Such a lack of political courage is precisely what leads to GOP debates none of the presidential candidates says a word as audience members boo a gay soldier. If both national political parties are to be fixed, or if a new party is to rise up as a legitimate challenger, then America needs powerful people with the courage to put their names and money behind sensible reforms without hiding behind the walls of anonymity.

We wish Americans Elect well. Improving the process by which politicians are elected by narrow extreme elements of both national parties is a worthy goal. Americans Elect, once it achieves ballot access, shouldn't stop at the presidential race. It should work to reform the redistricting process that is the chief contributor to a rigidly divided Congress. Any effort to return the political system to the center and give independent voters legitimate choices is a step in the right direction.

But show us the money. Progress without transparency is very little progress at all.

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