Paying for the President

I have what could only be described as an unhealthy interest in elections. Regardless where they are taking place I like to keep an eye on trends, voting systems, swings, big issues etc etc. It has made for following some pretty interesting elections that pass most folk in Scotland by. The Swedish election of last year for instance was fascinating for the manner in which the centre-right after years in the political wilderness managed to get 4 different parties to hold a common platform as an alternative to the ‘Socialistic’ tendency of the then Government. Remarkably this coalitions of the centre-right willing narrowly won out.

It was also interesting for examining the Swedish electoral system (which makes our look like child’s play). They have the fantastic option of writing in the name of the person they want to see elected. Which in the south of Sweden lead to a truck driver being official elected after just one person wrote his name down next to a party who had enough votes to get an extra candidate elected to the local council. The fact that the person who wrote his name in was his own father who was drunk at the time and did it for a joke and the fact that he was not even a member of the party he was supposedly elected for didn`t matter. Just for info he decided not to take up the seat. American presidential elections generate the most interest in Scotland of any foreign elections. You only have to look at Jeff, Malc and Kezia’s site to see that.

But there is a desire for people to somehow get involved. Particularly amongst the Scottish bloggers...many of who are involved in politics and campaigning is a way of life. Kezia is promoting limited edition Scotland Supports Obama t-shirts while Malc is looking for pro-McCain material.

However, due to US Federal law on political donations neither can directly donate to the presidential campaigns or to PAC s (political campaign organisations involved in elections). Only US Citizens (including those who live outside the US) and permanent residents of the US (a foreign national with a green card) are permitted to donate to the campaigns.

There may be a way of donating to organisations in the US in a manner which is legally permissible. Organisations who are not directly involved in campaigning for a particular person or office but whose actions may, arguably, ultimately favour one candidate over and another. An article in the Guardian before the last Presidential elections suggested that this may be helpful to candidates and was legal.

I’m of the opinion that Hillary Clinton doesn`t stand much of a chance of getting the Democratic nomination so I`ll focus on Barack Obama and John McCain.

Barack backers may consider donating to the US organisation the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The NAACP do a lot of good work and they say that they are “a 21st century advocacy organization that fights for the advancement of minority groups by bridging the gaps in seven advocacy areas including education, economic empowerment, healthcare, criminal justice, civic engagement, international affairs and poverty issues”.

Barack Obama was by far and away the winner of the NAACP Democrat hustings and young black people are among the groups with the lowest turnout in the US. If the NAACP can encourage a greater turnout from the black community, particularly the young black community, then most assessments would be that this would be to the strong benefit of Obama.

They have their ‘Think Hard, Vote Hard’ campaign running at the moment which has some ambitious targets. So if you want to donate to help the Obama campaign why not consider donating to the NAACP.

For supports of John McCain an organisation that may be considered for your legal donation is the American Legion (AL). The AL is a military veteran organisation that is “a not-for-profit community-service organization which now numbers nearly 3 million members, men and women, in nearly 15,000 American Legion posts worldwide.”

They do have a voter registration programme to encourage veterans to vote in elections. Veterans have been shown to be voting for McCain in significant numbers so an effort to increase the veteran vote would be to his benefit. So if you want to donate to help the McCain campaign you could support an organisation such as the American legion.

It should be stressed that both the NAACP and the American Legion are non-partisan. There efforts in raising the vote are not targeted to benefit one candidate over another. Simply that the demographic that they are seeking to encourage have been polled as showing a greater support for one candidate over the other.

I won`t be donating to these campaigns at this stage as I spend most of my donations in Scotland and Ireland. But should you wish to get involved in the American Presidential elections through donations then donating legally to these kinds of organisations may be your best way of going about it. If I was to be making a donation between the two candidates on officer then the NAACP would be getting $50 of my money.