TOTAL BS!
ActBlue announced a major upgrade to its donor-verification system Thursday, introducing a new security feature requiring contributors to confirm that they are American by checking a box promising they are telling the truth.
The Democratic fundraising platform said the additional safeguard represents one of the most significant improvements to its fraud-prevention system in years.
Under the new procedure, donors entering an address outside the United States will first be asked to provide a U.S. passport number.
They will then encounter a second screen reading:
“Are you an American citizen?”
YES
NO
IT’S COMPLICATED
Anyone selecting “YES” will proceed to a new verification page requiring them to check a box labeled: “I promise.”
Company officials believe the extra step will dramatically reduce the possibility of foreign interference.
“We take election security extremely seriously,” an ActBlue official said. “That’s why we’re no longer simply taking people’s word for it.”
“We’re now taking their word for it twice.”
The enhanced security measures follow the release of a congressional staff report alleging weaknesses in ActBlue’s procedures for screening potentially foreign political contributions.
According to documents cited by Republican-led House committees, ActBlue’s previous passport verification process checked whether donors entered the appropriate number of characters but did not verify the passport information against a government database.
ActBlue has pushed back strongly against the committees’ broader allegations, saying a third-party forensic analysis found foreign donations were extraordinarily rare and that nearly all contribution dollars in 2023 came from donors who provided either a U.S. address or passport information.
Nevertheless, people familiar with the matter said company officials agreed there was room to make the passport system more secure.
Several proposals were considered.
One would have required donors to answer a series of questions only Americans would know, including:
“What does DMV stand for?”
“Why is the McDonald’s ice cream machine broken?”
And: “Explain the ending of your last cable bill.”
That proposal was abandoned after testing showed approximately 38% of actual Americans couldn’t answer the questions either.
Another proposal would have required overseas donors to upload a photograph of themselves holding an American flag.
Compliance officials reportedly rejected that plan after discovering Amazon delivers American flags internationally.
The final system instead relies on the new two-step honor verification. Foreign-address donors who check “I promise” will immediately be cleared to continue.
Donors who leave the box unchecked will receive one final opportunity: “Are you SUPER sure you’re not American?”
ActBlue officials are confident the strengthened procedure will satisfy critics.
Congressional investigators have not yet responded. The checkbox has been independently confirmed to work.
TOTAL BS IS SATIRE: The House committees really did report that ActBlue’s passport-number procedure checked basic character requirements rather than verifying passport information against a government database. ActBlue disputes Republicans’ broader allegations and says its analysis shows foreign donations were exceedingly rare. The “I promise” checkbox, citizenship quiz and two-step honor system are TOTAL BS.
For the real BS read this — House Administration Committee: Third interim staff report on ActBlue
