Because the Internet is offering another method for campaign contributions, political consultants are hoping to tap into the nation's check writers who are not comfortable giving out credit card information online.
The Federal Election Commission could approve a proposal Thursday that would give donors the option of making online political contributions using e-checks.
The FEC has already approved the use of credit cards and debit cards to make campaign contributions over the Internet for candidates specifically seeking matching funds.
"It's another way that the Net can be used for grassroots fundraising," said Emilienne Ireland, president of Campaign Advantage, the Net campaign consulting firm that brought the proposal to the FEC. "This has a lot of advantages."
The process, however, is a bit cumbersome, as it requires the check payer to enter far more information than in a typical credit-card transaction.
The commission received the proposal in November and responded Monday with a Draft Advisory Opinion recommending the approval of e-checks for online contributions.
Ireland said e-checks would broaden citizen participation in the political donation process.
"Visa and MasterCard report that only 60-65 percent of American adults have a major credit card, and many of them are maxed out," she said. "The people who can freely contribute money to political campaigns on the Net with a credit card are a minority."
The e-check would also save political campaigns the money, time, and effort normally put into direct mailings and credit card transactions, she said.
"The people who are giving the donation don't have to pay an interest charge [on their credit cards] and there is no merchant credit card fee with online checks, so the receiver isn't going to have to pay a hefty premium," she said.
Ireland and Campaign Advantage CEO Phil Nash came up with the e-check idea when they saw how uncomfortable many people felt using their credit cards online.
"We saw that our clients needed this," Nash said.
With donations to political campaigns and nonprofit organizations in mind, they assembled a team of lawyers, bankers, and database partners to develop the e-check technology.
The result is something that looks like a regular check with built-in forms. The e-check would be built into a campaign Web site, alongside credit card options, according to a copy of the FEC advisory opinion.
If the donor clicks the online check option, a contribution form appears on the screen requesting the donor's name, address, email address, occupation, employer, and either a social security number or drivers license number. If the donor fails to provide any of the above, the form will be rejected.
Then the donor's Web browser is redirected to the encrypted site of eMoney.NET, an Internet payment processing company. Within a few seconds, the donor receives an email from the site containing a digital signature authentication code, which is then entered into a check form that appears on the screen.
The donor enters the check number from their checkbook, their account number, bank routing number, bank name, and the digital signature authentication code into the form.
The donor is then asked to answer a series of questions attesting to their age, citizenship, and source of funds, all of which must be checked in order to proceed with the contribution. The contribution then goes through an electronic funds screening process, similar to that of online banking.
In order for the e-check concept to work, Ireland said security must be airtight. "You have to be able to verify that people who are sending you the check information are who they say they are," she said. "It must be done on a secure server."
But in case of kinks, errors, or fraud, political campaigns are the ideal place to do beta testing, she said, because there is no exchange of merchandise between politicians and donors.
