Obituary: Americans Elect Corporation (2010-2012)

Americans Elect Corporation passed quietly last night, May 17, 2012, in its Washington D.C. penthouse bunker. It is survived by its loving father, Wall Street tycoon Peter Ackerman, its half-brother, COO Elliot Ackerman, and its faithful man-servant Arno Political Consultants, estimated to have pocketed $10 million in its loyal service to AE as ballot access procurer.

A private service will be held today at an undisclosed location. The family requests that memorial donations be directed to the Republican National Committee.

Requests for refunds of donations made to AE may be inserted in any convenient body orifice.

VICTORY OVER PLUTOCRACY DAY! (Or Is It?)

In a statement just published by Americans Elect Corporation, AE states: "yada, yada, yada...The primary process for the Americans Elect nomination has come to an end...yada, yada, yada."

AECorp has thrown in the towel. Or has it?

Let's face it; we don't trust the guys behind Americans Elect. Never have. Never will. Does the quote above mean that the nomination process has come to an end (i.e., there will be no nominee), along with the primary process? Remember that the AECorp Board of Directors has "extraordinary authority and power to take or compel any action"...including awarding the nomination by fiat. We can't actually imagine they'd be stupid enough to do that...but then, we have never yet imagined in advance the idiocies AECorp's now-stringless puppetmasters have conceived over and over again.

We'll keep watching AECorp's corpse. We'll let you know if it twitches. And if it does, we'll be the first to pump a few more rounds into it.

Our sincerest thanks and congratulations to our thousands of concerned and vigilant readers, our nearly 1,000 Twitter followers who did so much to help us get the word out, and most especially to the Father of AE Watchers, Jim Cook of Irregular Times. Democracy thanks you.

Publication of AECorp's 2011 IRS Form 990 Is Now Overdue. What's It Hiding?

Americans Elect Corporation has avenues available to it to delay the legally-required public release of its 2011 IRS Form 990 until after it has awarded its nomination, and potentially until after the November election...either way, far too late to be useful to voters. And so, predictably, AECorp is stonewalling our repeated email requests for a copy of its 2011 Form 990 -- a document which will shed considerable sunlight on its dark finances.

Don't let Americans Elect hide its money trail from voters. We have a right to know about the money behind AECorp, and AE has a legal obligation to provide that information by publicly releasing its IRS Form 990 upon request. Let AE know you're watching, and you care: write kahlil.byrd@americanselect.org requesting a copy of AECorp's 2011 Form 990 filing, and please cc us at aewatch@gmail.com. Thanks!

Learn more about the revealing nature of a non-profit's Form 990 filing here.

For the First Time Admitting Failure, AECorp Descends Into Bald-Faced Lies

From top: AECorp Chair Ackerman & CEO Byrd

Faced with one ballot failure after another, early this morning Americans Elect Corporation's Chief Evasion Officer, Kahlil Byrd, published the following statement on the AECorp web site, which we will dissect here:

Our Endorsement For The Americans Elect Presidential Nomination

AE Transparency was founded one year ago today, with a strict commitment to impartiality. Our job was, and remains, to observe Americans Elect Corporation, to report its misdeeds, to commend its good deeds (more on that should we ever detect any), and to press it by all means necessary to reform and thus to become the transparent, democratic institution we all wish it was. And that commitment has thus far barred us from endorsing any Americans Elect candidate.

But no more. After a heated day-long Editorial Board meeting here high atop the palatial AE Transparency Tower...a meeting involving considerable cosmetic but, fortunately, only minor structural damage...our Board (or, at least, its surviving membership) has determined that now is the time for us to cast aside our non-partisan heritage and take a stand.

Weakly Voting at Americans Elect: Slow-Death Overtime Edition

The first-round 'support click' voting period at Americans Elect Corporation is now 112% complete...we think. Really, no one knows any more, as AECorp continues to send conflicting messages regarding the re-re-scheduled date of the upcoming first primary round, as well as the date on which the current round actually ends. Apparently, this round's voting will end only when AECorp owner/operator Peter Ackerman damn well says it's over...perhaps sometime in 2013. The standing joke here in AE Transparency's palatial penthouse tower is "Peter Ackerman says 'you'll keep voting until you get it right!'"

Ersatz 'voting' at Americans Elect Corporation now appears to have lost whatever pretense of legitimacy it may once have had, given the corporation's recent string of disastrous flubs including canceled ballots, yet more canceled ballots, compulsive violations of the rules, and ballot-rigging shenanigans. Therefore we really see no point in commenting in detail on this week's faux voting results, except to note that:

• Nothing happened, again this week. All declared candidates (affectionately know as 'stage props' here at AE Transparency), and all draft campaigns (AKA 'innocent bystanders'), are losing simultaneously -- which may be a first in the history of voting. 
• Insiders' favorite and AECorp Chosen One, peek-a-boo candidate David Walker, made no noteworthy progress again this week.
• In the latest of an increasingly desperate series of efforts to look presidential, this week Buddy Roemer attempted unsuccessfully to stir interest in his campaign's vice presidential selection process...thus putting the cart several time zones ahead of the horse. 
• We express our sincerest gratitude to recently declared candidate, Stuart Hillman, for displacing white supremacist Merlin Miller from our top-ten declared candidates list. 

Fast & Loose: How Americans Elect Scoffs at the Rules

The ideal form of governance has been a subject of heated debate since antiquity. For example, while Plato advocated a benevolent monarchy, ruled by an idealized Philosopher King who was above the law, Aristotle argued instead that "It is more proper that law should govern than any one of the citizens" Or, as Samuel Rutherford avowed in 1644: "Lex rex" (the Law is the King), the reverse of the more medieval  notion, "Rex lex" (the King is the Law).

We had thought that this argument had long since been definitively decided, at least in Western democracies, squarely on the side of "the rule of Law, not of Man."

Then along came Americans Elect Corporation, whose owner/operator, Wall Street billionaire Peter Ackerman, has demonstrated throughout his remarkable career that he is a law unto himself.

With Failures Rapidly Mounting, What Is Americans Elect's End-Game?

Having now been forced to cancel two primary ballots in a row due to the American electorate's utter failure to respond to its spiel, Americans Elect may now be judged by any rational observer of the political scene to be an abject failure, and dead in the water. So what happens now?

AE Speaks, Claims May 15 Ballot Now Canceled, Too

BULLETIN (7:40 AM ET, May 9): We have just spoken with Americans Elect press secretary Ileana Wachtel regarding the passing of the yet-again failed May 8th deadline for support clicks and its impact on the scheduled May 15 primary vote at AE. In a terse statement Wachtel said: "We're still waiting for the candidates to get their clicks by the 15th." In response to our question regarding whether that means  the May 15 ballot is now canceled too she replied, "Yes, because they didn't get their clicks."

Wachtel assured us that an announcement to this effect is available on the Americans Elect web site, but could not direct us to the page. As of this time we are unable to locate that announcement.

UPDATE (8:00 AM ET, May 10): As of this time, Americans Elect still has posted no notice on its web site, has issued no press release, nor has it notified delegates via email regarding the expiration of the May 8 deadline for support clicks to qualify for its previously-scheduled (and now canceled, according to press secretary Wachtel) May 15 first-round primary ballot. We wonder what kind of 'democratic' organization would simply refuse to communicate with its own members?

UPDATE #2 (7:30 AM ET, May 11): Still no public acknowledgement from Americans Elect Corporation, and likewise no retraction from Wachtel of her May 9 statement that the May 15 vote has been canceled. AE's 'Caucus' web page still indicates the first 'caucus' round of voting will be held on May 15. If so, Americans Elect will be in violation of its own Pre-Election Convention Rule 3.2.2, which provides that candidates "...shall demonstrate public support of the Candidate by Delegate Support Clicks on the Website 7 days before any Primary Ballot on which the Candidate seeks to be considered, to provide sufficient time for a Candidate Certification Committee review prior to the first Primary Ballot."

We encourage readers who are curious to know exactly when the first primary voting round will be held, and what the 'support click' deadline is/was for that round, to direct their questions to AECorp CEO Kahlil Byrd at kahlil.byrd@americanselect.org

Ackerman Wrecks: The Tragi-Comedy of Americans Elect Corporation Continues

With no candidates qualified to advance to its first-of-three primary ballot (originally scheduled for May 8), last week Americans Elect canceled the May 8 ballot, allowing candidates an additional week to gain the needed support clicks to qualify for its second (May 15) ballot.

The deadline for support clicks to qualify candidates for that May 15 ballot expired at 12:00:00 AM this morning (Tuesday, May 8). As expected, the story remains unchanged: no candidate has qualified to advance to the next round.

As of 7:30 AM ET on May 9, Americans Elect has issued no comment, nor has it presented any disaster recovery plan. Our calls to AECorp press secretary Ileana Wachtel have not been returned.

UPDATE (7:40 AM ET, May 9): We have just spoken with AECorp press secretary Ileana Wachtel, who provided surprising news discussed in our latest post.

Personally, we suggest Americans Elect should next try holding a raffle to award its nomination. Proceeds from ticket sales could be used to defray AECorp owner/operator Peter Ackerman's expenses.

This Weak's Voting At Americans Elect: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Edition

Feeling like Bill Murray's character in Groundhog Day, we have spent the past nine weeks collecting and analyzing 'weakly' voting data from Americans Elect's long-running first-round ballot for its nominee for President, only to observe every week that the vote was going nowhere and that we were fast running out of fresh synonyms for 'fail':

• 3/31/12: "Voter participation continued to disappoint as Americans elected to ignore this..."
• 4/07/12: "...no candidate can qualify for the second round...."
• 4/14/12: "Voter turnout...was anemic again this week...."
• 4/21/12: "...disinterested voters continue to fail to vote...."
• 4/27/12: "...we project the winner will be (...drum-roll...): no one"

So it came as no surprise when the clock struck midnight on May 1 this week -- the appointed end of first-round voting -- and all of AECorp's 489 declared and draft candidates simultaneously turned into pumpkins, with none in possession of the failrly modest number of votes required by the rules in order to advance to the next round ballot.

Does Americans Elect "Get Big Money Out of Politics"?

A big part of Americans Elect Corporation's self-proclaimed value proposition is that, by providing 'non-partisan' 50-state ballot access plus a digital megaphone for candidates who do not wish to align with either of the two conventional parties, it provides a means to take the 'big money' out of politics. Provided, that is, that one ignores the 'big money' pumped into Americans Elect itself. It's a nice idea, and a bold claim. But does it hold up under scrutiny?

Up to this point no one could really answer that question...there were simply no hard data available with which to test the hypothesis. But now, for the first time, we have some solid (although admittedly still sparse) data, and the answer is: "sorta, but sorta not, and definitely not in a good way."

First-Round Voting Deadline Passes At Americans Elect; May 8 Primary "Cancelled"

The deadline for candidate 'support clicks' at Americans Elect Corporation was midnight last night (May 1), according to both its official Pre-Election Convention Rules and their online summary. That deadline came, and went, ten hours ago as we write. But as yet there is not hardly a peep from Americans Elect noting this significant (and, we guess, embarrassing) event in its short but troubled life.

A Stronger Weak of Voting At Americans Elect, And The Winner Is...

As first-round voting approaches its close (on May 1st), Americans Elect Corporation managed to log a record-setting week, harvesting 1,707 qualifying votes for its Top 20 candidates (see graph). This was the highest weekly vote tally we have observed since we began vote-tracking in early March, although not by much, and not nearly a strong enough performance to change the story we have been reporting here week after week. With the voting period now 97% complete, no declared candidate has even 25% of the qualifying votes required to advance to the next round. And so we project the winner of the first Americans Elect ballot will be (...drum-roll...): no one.

Take A Byte Out of Plutocracy: Withdraw Your Support Clicks (Here's How)

If you're like us, when you first learned about Americans Elect you were excited. "At last," you thought, "somebody gets it!" Online voting holds tremendous promise to engage voters and to enhance democracy. And a third party with no partisan baggage, and with 50-state ballot access, could really kick some politics-as-usual butt inside the Beltway.

So you went online. You signed up as an Americans Elect member. You ran the gauntlet of questions about your nephew's high school mascot in order to get your identity verified. And you voted for your favorite candidates.

And then...too late...you realized that you'd been chumped.

What To Look For In Americans Elect Corporation's Upcoming IRS Form 990

 "Follow the money. Always follow the money," has been the First Law of political science since long before Deep Throat thus advised Bob Woodward in the 1976 classic, All The President's Men. Alas, miscreants know that too, and they have a powerful armamentarium at their disposal with which to cover their money's tracks. But there is one thing which stands forthrightly between organizations such as Americans Elect Corporation and the invisibility they crave: the Internal Revenue Service's Form 990. So here follows a brief tutorial on what to look for in AECorp's upcoming 2011 Form 990 filing, and how to find it. Over the next 20 days we'll outline one new tip every few days regarding how to read AECorp's tea leaves when it de-cloaks on May 15th(?).

Americans Elect Corporation Weakly Voting Highlights for 4/21/12

With just ten days left in the months-long ordeal that is Americans Elect Corporation's first-round ballot, the big picture remains as it has since Day 1: disinterested voters continue to fail to vote in sufficient numbers to advance any candidate to the second-round ballot. As the graph above illustrates, no candidate has achieved even half the number of qualifying votes required to stay on pace. But the fix is in, and that may be good news for these poor campaigners.

Americans Elect Giving Up On The Whole Intertubes Thing, Admits It's Too Complicated For Them

A central aspect of Americans Elect's value proposition is its implementation of what we like to call 'digital democracy', also known as 'online voting' -- empowering voters to record their electoral choices via the internet, with all the benefits you might imagine that innovation would offer in the way of enhanced voter participation. In fact, we would guess that that is one of AECorp's biggest attractions, particularly for the youthful demographic it works so hard to target. As every American corporation today understands, if you cater to the youth market and you're not online with fully internet-enabled transactional capabilities, you're just not in the game. Hence our surprise to learn today that Americans Elect Corporation has apparently given up on this whole intertubes thing, at least as far as one critical aspect of its operation is concerned.

AECorp Makes It Official: Ackerman Selects The Next President of the United States

Americans Elect Corporation's otherwise silent Board of Directors posted its new Post-Election Convention Rules on its web site today. And as you might have expected, they're an eyebrow-raiser.

'Weakly' Americans Elect Voting Highlights for 4/14/12

Voter turnout for the first-round ballot at Americans Elect Corporation was anemic again this week, with just 921 qualifying votes (out of AECorp's 400,000+ recorded 'members') logged for the Top-20 'candidates' we track in our weekly analysis. This result is, however, up from last week's record low turnout (just 829 qualifying votes), largely on the strength of AECorp's too-little too-late new get-out-the-vote initiative (an email advising members "It only takes a few minutes, and if you get verified today, you'll be entered to win a free gift from us to you!" We're hoping the "free gift" is a shiny new toaster. Given the preponderance of billionaire Wall Streeters and other Titans of Finance among AECorp insiders this hardly seems like too much to ask.