On August 11, Elliot Ackerman, Chief Operating Officer for Americans Elect, appeared on the Stephen Colbert show. The most significant news from the interview is that Ackerman did not imply, suggest, or say, that Americans Elect has a centrist or a moderate agenda. Last week he had suggested that it did. But, on the show, when asked, “What does Americans Elect stand for?” he said that it stands for whatever its delegates want it to stand for. A delegate is any registered voter in the U.S. who chooses to participate in the Americans Elect presidential process. At no point did he even mouth the words, “centrist” or “moderate”, or any other word that suggests any political agenda.
Ackerman strongly implied that the process by which the two major parties choose their presidential nominees, in which the voters of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada, have more influence than the voters of other states, is a flawed process.
The interview will leave viewers believing that it requires 2,900,000 valid signatures to get a presidential candidate on the ballot of all 50 states. Actually the number is approximately 850,000, and that will drop to approximately 740,000 if the new Florida ballot access law is overturned. Ackerman made a statement that Americans Elect will provide the first opportunity by which a presidential candidate can be directly nominated by the American people. Actually, however, the Reform Party in 1996 provided the same opportunity for all U.S. voters to nominate a presidential candidate. The Reform Party chose its presidential nominee by a mail-ballot (any registered voter could obtain a ballot). Then the Reform Party obtained ballot access for that nominee in all 50 states. Ackerman’s statement would have been accurate if it had specified that this is the first time using the internet to choose the nominee.