May 17, 2012 Americans Elect Statement

PRESS RELEASE from American Elect
May 17, 2012

Statement by Americans Elect

There is a desire among Delegates and millions of Americans who have supported Americans Elect to see a credible candidate emerge from this process.

However, the rules, as developed in consultation with the Americans Elect Delegates, are clear. As of this week, no candidate achieved the national support threshold required to enter the Americans Elect Online Convention in June. The primary process for the Americans Elect nomination has come to an end.

Americans Elect, from the outset, has been a rules-based process, with the rules publicly available and open to debate by the Delegates. Our key priorities have been to: 1) honor the trust Americans Elect has built with the Delegates and American public; 2) require candidates to earn the nomination by building support among the Americans Elect Delegate community and American voters; and 3) create a basis for a solid future for the Americans Elect movement.

This decision honors these priorities.

Through the efforts of thousands of staffers, volunteers and leadership, Americans Elect has achieved its operational goals, including:
·       Creating a pathway for nationwide ballot access for a balanced presidential ticket
        unaffiliated with the nominating process of either major party to compete in the
        2012 race;
·       Building the technological platform for the first nonpartisan secure national online
        primary at AmericansElect.org;
·       Attracting a significant base of more than 4 million supporters, including Delegates,
        petition signers and volunteers;
·       Educating the national and local media on the Americans Elect mission; and
·       Finishing an extensive candidate briefing program involving more than 100
        potential candidates.

As always, we thank everyone who has helped build this organization and are grateful for the work, efforts, and trust so many people have placed in Americans Elect. We are continuing the Americans Elect mission of creating more choice in our political system, giving candidates unaffiliated with the nominating process of either major party an authentic way to run for office and giving the American people a greater voice in our political process.

Very disappointed, but not surprised, that you did not get enough participants. I think you failed because you can't start a movement based on nothing but centrist politics and the desire for bipartisanship.

Less than FOUR HUNDRED of your alleged 400,000 delegates have provided feedback here. And not even all of them want you to continue. If you do, your candidate will get ballot access in allegedly 50 states. He will get that access after winning an election on AE that I predict will garner him less than 10,000 votes; more likely he will get closer to 5,000.

Imagine the firestorm of criticism that will eruipt when the public learns that a tiny handful of people who decoded the secrets of your verification system managed to put that candidate on their ballot.

And most delegates who appeared this week will never return after being shut out from voting. You are so done. Stick a fork in it.

Why have none of the candidate answered the AE Delegate questions? That should have been available and required long before now. I want to know where everyone stands before I vote.

I read through your process and it was as clear as mud. I am a registered founding delegate, but I have no idea what we were being asked to do and by when. The website is sure pretty, but in terms of usefulness... not so much.
You seem to have a special talent for ignoring feedback. Long ago I offered to help you design a website that might just work. Yours fails on so many levels that it is hard to know where to begin, although my long ago post made an effort.

And also suggested long ago, try to do something that just might change the system. Running a third party candidate will at best create a spoiler. Start my getting some form of preference voting into the system. Then people could vote for your candidate without concern that they are wasting a vote.

I'd write a lot more, but why bother? (See first sentence above.)

So, there seems to be two main problems (maybe more but let's just say two right now) with AE's enterprise - first, the process was way too diffuse, how many of the drafted candidates actually would accept a bid from AE? I'm guessing very few. While drafting a candidate is a notable endeavor, maybe by February the "field" should have been trimmed down to the candidates who would actually accept the bid like Buddy Roemer. Then, I'm guessing, getting someone over the threshold would not have been all that difficult. Second, there seems to be some real concern about AE's technological know-how. It may be too late to fix this fundamental issue but I will hope not, I was (and still am) intrigued by your mission. A third viable option is sorely needed in our very broken political process.

Given its shady politics-as-usual 'leadership', its countless violations of its own rules, the illegal lengths it goes to to hide its shady finances, and more sins too extensive to list here, Americans Elect has lost any legitimacy it may once have had.

The only way forward is for Americans Elect Corporation's self-appointed board of directors and its executive 'leadership' to resign in favor of new, democratically elected leaders, who can then clean up the mess which is AECorp.

I absolutely agree with you Transparent. But it ain't gonna happen. This site is a rich boys toy. He's buying ballot access for yet another elite appointed assassin of the American people to the POTUS.

If this site was really interested in creating a 'people's' choice candidate, there would be a live chat operational from the get-go. There would be live interaction between declared candidates and the delegates on a weekly basis. Questions would be directed each and every week at these candidates, which will have been created by the delegates through weekly interaction with a question forming interface.

I feel the obvious running solutions missing on this site have been deliberately avoided. The 'thousands' of AE staffers are NEVER available to talk with. They choose to lurk in the shadows and let people babble their frustrations with no reply. You get the feeling they're all laughing at us around a water cooler or worse. It's an absolutely insulting experience here. If it wasn't for the handful of friendly informative delegates you meet, this site would be of no use. The conversations between would be hopefuls around here went from offering great ideas and solutions into jeering and mockery of the site and it's creators. And it's all their fault! You can't just sit back and watch. You have to participate on the site. Something Peter Ackerman has NEVER done! Shame on him and his money. What a fake.

The SOLUTION is open this site up with interfaces which empower and put all power in the hands of the delegates and remove power of decision from any board and small group of decision makers. LET THE PEOPLE LOOSE TO ELICIT CHANGE!

This post was eaten by the "Due to Volume" big grey ~~bear~~ bar:

AETransparency 7 hours ago
Fellow heck-raisers, we need your help.

Americans Elect Corporation is currently stonewalling all requests for it to release its 2011 IRS Form 990 filing, in flagrant violation of tax code section 6104 (which requires non-profits to make their Form 990 filings publicly available for inspection). The release of their Form 990 would shed some light (not a lot, but some) on AECorp's finances. Therefore we feel it is important to get this important document into the light of day before AE's upcoming 'convention', and certainly before the November election.

You can help us pressure AECorp to comply with the law. Email AECorp's CEO, kahlil.byrd@americanselect.org, requesting a copy of its 2011 IRS Form 990 filing, and cc us at aewatch@gmail.com. And feel free to email daily, until Byrd responds to your request.

Many thanks!