Reply #32: In theory [View All]

[Lady President]

In theory candidates need to report individuals whose contributions aggregate in excess of $200. In practice it is next to impossible to keep track of small donations. If you were to contribute $5 over and over using the same credit card until you reached $200, then it would be easy to report your contributions. The problem is that many small contributors are likely to contribute $50 online, $50 at a house party, $50 in supplies, and another $50 passing the hat at a Meetup. Most people don't know what is an official donation or how to count the contributors. Using passing the hat as an example, it would be very difficult to determine how many people contributed and the exact amount per person.

Spending time and resources to figure out who has given $190 and who has given $210 is not sensible. I think as a whole all the Dem. candidate try to follow the guidelines whenever it's reasonable.