Democrats are raising record amounts of money in this election.
But not everything is on the up and up.
And Florida opened an investigation into this fundraising scandal that runs to Kamala Harris.
Democrat fundraising platform used by Kamala Harris under investigation
ActBlue is the online fundraising platform used by every Democrat political candidate from Vice President Kamala Harris all the way down to the city council.
Democrats punch in their debit or credit card information into ActBlue, and it sends it to the candidate.
But there are suspicions that the platform is being used to skirt campaign finance rules.
So far 19 states have opened investigations into whether ActBlue is being used to make straw donations.
Straw donations are campaign contributions made in someone’s else name to avoid contribution limits.
There are also fears that foreign donations can be made on the platform because it does not require that three-digit card verification value (CVV) found on the back of most debit and credit cards as a security feature to stop fraud.
Not having a CVV opens the door to using prepaid debit cards on ActBlue.
Nineteen Republican state attorneys general sent a letter to ActBlue CEO and President Regina Wallace-Jones pointing out the security problems with the platform.
Attorney generals from Indiana, Iowa, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming signed the letter.
They noted there could be a problem with people having a donation made there without their knowledge.
“Recent reporting suggests that there may be donors across the country who are identified in filings with the Federal Election Commission as having donated to candidates through ActBlue (and other affiliated entities), but who did not actually make those donations,” the letter stated.
There are reports of people who are listed as having made dozens of donations on ActBlue who claim they never made one.
Red flags found with ActBlue
House Republicans also have their own investigations going into ActBlue.
House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI) used a computer data program to analyze the numbers.
Steil found that there are donors on ActBlue who have made an unusually large number of donations on the platform that would be greater than what someone in their financial situation could afford.
He passed the information along to the attorneys general of Arkansas, Missouri, Texas, Virginia, and Florida.
“This investigation focused on potential unlawful exploitation of unwitting ‘straw donors,’ whose identities may have been used to channel illicit funds into campaigns in your state,” Steil wrote the attorneys general.
“The final analysis produced a set of anomalous donor profiles, ranked by the severity of the inconsistencies. In reviewing this analysis, it became clear there is suspicious activity occurring that warrants further review,” Steil added.
Steil warned that the lack of security meant that ActBlue would be attractive to foreign nationals.
“The real big concern here is that because these donations are made online, they could be coming from anywhere across the globe. Gone are the days where individuals would engage in illegal behavior with cash. Now we can do this online,” Steil said.
ActBlue is the heart of the Democrat money machine that they use to fund their campaigns.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this story.
