Every Thursday morning, the Americans Elect web page posts a new signature total. This total represents the number of signatures gathered across the nation so far on ballot access petitions. The July 21 figure is 1,650,449, up 76,324 in the last week. The vast majority of these signatures are from California.
Pingback: Americans Elect National Signatures Total at 1,650,449 | ThirdPartyPolitics.us
See http://irregulartimes.com/index.php/archives/2011/06/24/in-solicitation-for-funds-americans-elect-reveals-budget-and-ballot-access-plans/
California is not listed, but if it fits this pattern, Arno will be pocketing about 4-5 million$ just off California alone after payments to petitioners and regional managers and office and shipping costs. Nationwide, they will easily make well into 8 figures on this.
#2, that budget/ballot access plan was written in January 2011 and does not reflect what Americans Elect is doing now.
Their average price per signature and amount of validity padding has changed dramatically?
#2 If Arno is making the kind of money that you suggest, why has he made no attempt to make even a token payment on his outstanding balances with his direct signature suppliers?
The only thought that occurs to me is that Americans Elect changed their Status to 501(c)4, Kellen Arno became an Officer of Americans Elect, and Mike Arno went off the deep end over the normal costs associaed with a campaign in early September last year.
According to opensecrets.org this was shortly after Arno had to refund money to Ackerman.
It sounds like the contract got renegotiated after Arno had to correct a financial discrepancy.
I have trouble bleieving, that even as narcisistic and unethical as Mike Arno has shown himself to be as of late, as a practical matter, if he was truly solvent, he would have made some sort of payment, instead of moaning like a jail cell punk about his operating costs.
Does anyone who knows any of his direct vendors really believe that none of these people have asked for repayment?
In fact the descriptions oh his actions and tone that I am hearing indicates that others share hese concerns.
The best analogy that I can draw was when the Beltway Sniper demanded a payment under threat of killing more people, law enforcement had to consider the payoff. Even if there was a question about whether or not the killing would stop if he criminal was paid, it was clear that if no payment was made, the killings would continue.
In Arno’s case, for the last several years he has spread financial terror around the industry. His methods of coercing his vendors to carry outstanding balances, is that if they refuse to perform the work he demands today, he will not be able to pay them the money he already owes them.
If you can figure this out, please let everyone know.
Congrats to AE.
@5 Dunno. Read the link for yourself and do the math. For the 20 states on that list, the average price per raw signature is $4 plus another nice little chunk for unspecified expenses, and the amount of padding they gather had them getting a 58.7% validity rate. The overall average price per *valid* signature is $7.50.
In the case of California, the vast majority of signatures paid 1.25 to circulators, and only a small number were paid out at 2.00. Circulators get docked if they go below 75%, but Arno only needs 58%, so they keep the difference. Some circulators get above 75%, which accrues in Arno’s favor as well as it balances out the people that get lower validity. Let’s say regional managers get 75 cents. Office and shipping costs are relatively minor on this scale. If you add all that up, Arno is paying out no more than (and probably less than) 3 million, while charging 7.5 million to the client.
And that’s just one state.
By the way, the rate per valid signature for those 20 states goes as high as $13.03 in New Mexico, where Arno is banking on less than 50% overall validity. It is common practice with many regional managers for Arno to not buy any more work from circulators who come in under 50%.
There are several other states on the list where the cost per valid signatures comes in above $10.
No doubt Arno will make money if he is successful. However, If the refund was based on Arno’s typical overspending on these things, he probably has to justify every expense to Ackerman. Additionally on the first several states he did, the lodging budget put him in the red. If I had to render a guess, Arno will only be given operating costs while running the project and will have to wait until successful completion for his profit. This is industry standard when a sub-vendor is caught with his/her hand in the till. It could be on a state by state basis, or Arno may only profit if he is successful in all 50 states. Either way, I’m just happy that I told him to f**k off and find another programmer before I found myself on the long list of unpaid people who have delivered goods and services to Arno only to be cheated after the work is performed.