WASHINGTON -- Americans Elect is targeting Georgia in its bid to field a centrist candidate for president next year. But its ambition reaches far beyond creating a third party.
If everything falls in place, the group hopes a third choice on the ballot in Georgia will force bitterly divided Democrats and Republicans to listen to the middle.
They are harnessing the networking potential of the Internet and the public’s widespread distaste of the political process to draft a candidate for president.
The group’s CEO, Kahlil Byrd, thinks that with President Barack Obama’s sinking approval ratings and a Republican nomination contest that seems to produce a new favorite each month, this could be the moment.
“Every day we root for our politicians in Washington and candidates who are running for the Republican nomination to give a reason for this organization to be irrelevant,” said Byrd, a Morehouse College graduate who is a Republican but who also worked for Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.
“And every week the American people are given even greater reason why they should reach for a process like Americans Elect.”
Last month the group began gathering signatures to get on the ballot in Georgia, one of 28 states that are early targets because a signature effort is allowed to begin a year early.
But it’s going to take a lot more than a spot on the ballot to make an impact on next year’s race.
John Fortier, who studies electoral politics at the Bipartisan Policy Center think tank, said even in times of widespread dissatisfaction with the two-party system, third-party candidates are inherently marginalized as spoilers. It takes a combination of money and personality, he said, to make an impact like Ross Perot, who earned about 19 percent of the popular vote in 1992.
And even then, Perot did not earn a single electoral vote.
“People might be dissatisfied with the system and go through the process,” Fortier said. “But I do think at the end of the day they’re probably going to need a charismatic, well-known-in-advance candidate.”
Americans Elect descended from Unity ‘08, which was co-founded by President Jimmy Carter’s chief of staff, Hamilton Jordan.
It has been reconstituted as a 501(c)(4) organization, so it can advocate for causes but not make campaigns its primary purpose and remain unbound by Federal Elections Commission rules. Benefiting from limitless undisclosed fund-raising, the group has raised $22 million of its $30 million goal, half of which Byrd said will go to efforts to get on the ballot in all 50 states. The rest will go to managing the group’s website and a marketing campaign.
Americans Elect will not back a candidate or a set of issues. Rather, it will serve as an avenue to get a third person on the ballot -- the campaign is left up to the candidate.
So far it has secured a spot on the ballot in Michigan, Florida, Arizona, Nevada, Kansas and Alaska. In Georgia, word of mouth has helped the effort pick up steam after a slow start, according to Americans Elect national field director Kellen Arno. State law requires 45,707 certified signatures to get on the ballot, and the group’s goal is to collect 90,000 to make sure the effort survives legal scrutiny.
Americans Elect has two managers and 20 signature gatherers, who are paid per signature, on the ground in Georgia, primarily working grocery stores, tailgate parties and farmers markets in the Atlanta area. The biggest challenge, Arno said, is that Georgia voters are not used to signature drives, unlike other states where ballot initiatives requiring petitions are common.
Arno defended paying employees by the signature, a practice banned in some states because of fraud concerns. Arno said paying by the signature gives managers the opportunity to refuse to pay for obvious forgeries or incomplete entries.
Once Americans Elect gets past the ballot line hurdle, the next step is picking who to put there.
The process is new, but Bryd said it will likely result in a candidate with a similar background to recent presidents, who have all either served as governor, U.S. senator or vice president. It will begin later this fall, when candidates can declare their intention to enter the Internet race or Americans Elect “delegates” -- any registered voter who signs up on the website -- can begin a movement to draft a candidate.
A candidate or draftee must gain support of 10,000 online delegates, at least 1,000 in 10 different states. A candidate without executive federal or business experience would be required to earn more support.
The eventual nominee will have to survive a series of online elections to capture the June nomination.
All of the balloting will take place on the Americans Elect website.
Byrd doesn’t define success in this election in terms of votes, but rather in legitimizing a new way of nominating a candidate.
“We are laying down a technology benchmark,” he said. “...What is more important is the American people are looking for a stronger voice in this process. And placing in 2012 a credible ticket on the ballot will have a significant effect on how politics is done in the future.”
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