(The Center Square) – The leading Democratic party donation processor, ActBlue, is facing a lawsuit over alleged improper donations, the latest issue for ActBlue, which faces other similar allegations.
A Wisconsin Republican strategist filed the lawsuit, first reported by The New York Post, saying that his name was used to make a flurry of small donations totaling nearly $900 to Democrats without his knowledge.
Mark Block, who formerly worked as chief of staff for Herman Cain’s campaign in 2012, said 35 donations were made to Kamala Harris’ campaign using his name, something that has become an increasingly common allegation involving ActBlue.
Last month, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee began an inquiry into ActBlue citing similar reports of potentially illegal activity.
As The Center Square previously reported, House Oversight Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky. sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen raising concerns that ActBlue was being used to evade campaign finance laws.
“For example, ActBlue had not implemented standard procedures to guard against identity theft and fraud such as requiring a Card Verification Value (CVV) to process online transactions until it received criticism for not doing so,” the letter said.
Multiple small donations can help large donors evade detection from federal regulators.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said in August that he is opening an investigation into reports that thousands of donations were made by “dummy” accounts, another example of an apparently common phenomenon that officials are trying to uncover.
“ActBlue is also being investigated by several states’ officials in relation to contributions allegedly made via the platform fraudulently without the reported contributor’s awareness,” the letter continued, as The Center Square previously reported. In Virginia, reports of contribution activity facilitated through the ActBlue platform included “some cases in which single donors made tens of thousands of separate donations worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Texas opened a similar investigation into ActBlue in December 2023 over concerns of fraud.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in August of this year that ActBlue has cooperated with the investigation and now requires CVV codes for online donations.
“This is a critical change that can help prevent fraudulent donations,” Paxton said. “But it is most important that we enforce the law and protect the integrity of our elections. Certain features of campaign finance law may incentivize bad actors to use platforms like ActBlue to covertly move money to political campaigns to evade legal requirements. While campaign finance is protected by the First Amendment, suspicious activity on fundraising platforms must be fully investigated to determine if any laws have been broken.”
ActBlue did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
According to the Federal Elections Commission, federal law puts various limits on donations to candidates and PACS, preventing wealthy donors from pouring millions into candidates’ coffers, though they often find ways around that using dark money groups or creating adjacent organizations that do political work without explicitly supporting candidates.
From the FEC: