President Barack Obama’s online donation site has accepted illegal donations from a foreign citizen, while Gov. Mitt Romney’s site rejected a donation from the same man, according to a New York Post article.
The small-scale test bolsters growing concerns that Obama’s deputies have minimized routine security steps in the hope of maximizing foreign donations during the hard-fought 2012 campaign.
In 2008, a similar test showed that Obama’s deputies accepted money form unidentifiable an donor. That was sent via store-bought $20 gift cards. In contrast, Republican Sen. Jon McCain deputies ensured their website rejected the money from unidentifiable donors.
“Chris Walker, a British citizen who lives outside London, told The Post he was able to make two $5 donations to President Obama’s campaign this month through its Web site while a similar attempt to give Mitt Romney cash was rejected,” the NY Post reported.
“Walker said he used his actual street address in England but entered Arkansas as his state with the Schenectady, NY, ZIP code of 12345. ‘When I did Romney’s, the payment got rejected on the grounds that the address on the card did not match the address that I entered,’ he said.”
Obama’s online donations system is not subject to government oversight, partly because he’s not taking federal campaign funds.
Concerned citizens cannot fully vet Obama’s donation system because federal law does not require candidates to disclose the names of donors who give less than $200. Depending on the campaign’s choices, donors who use false names or who contribute via several credit cards, may be able to provide more than $200 without being revealed as donors.
Public concern about Obama’s security procedures was boosted last month by the Florida-based Government Accountability Institute.
“For a campaign that is very sophisticated in its fund-raising capabilities, they do not make one effort to try to even see or ask somebody to check a box that says they are a US citizen,” Peter Schweizer, the institute’s president, told the NY Post.
In May, The Daily Caller reported several instances of what appears to be criminal fraud in Obama’s online donations system.