Too Many Supporters: Obama Donor Lists Too Large For FEC To Process [View All]

[DerekJ]

FEC, media can't handle Obama jackpot

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A milestone of sorts was reached earlier this year, when Obama, the Illinois senator whose revolutionary online fundraising has overwhelmed Clinton, filed an electronic fundraising report so large it could not be processed by popular basic spreadsheet applications like Microsoft Excel 2003 and Lotus 1-2-3.

Those programs can’t download data files with more than 65,536 rows or 256 columns.

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In a revealing insight into the significant fundraising disparity between the two Democrats and presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain, it is still possible to download his reports with plain-old Excel.

Yet even those with access to higher-powered software capable of handling the Obama and Clinton data aren’t necessarily able to start crunching numbers on the 20th of each month, when the campaigns’ monthly reports are due at the FEC.

That’s partly because the agency’s website, which automatically processes and posts electronic data filed by the campaigns, on at least one occasion was unable to quickly process and post Obama’s report.

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