‘Americans Elect’ Seeks a Third Way Forward
Americans Elect is using the Internet at the center of its organizing strategy. Image courtesy Americanselect.orgAudio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The Republican Party continues to inch toward choosing a nominee who will run against President Barack Obama in November. But there’s another group working to add a name on the ballot in all 50 states.
Americans Elect was founded with more than $1 million in seed money from its chairman, Peter Ackerman. Its goal, as stated in an online video: give more people a voice in selecting the next president of the United States.
“Instead of a lucky few, every voter counts,” the video says. “And instead of parties that fight each other, we’re picking a president who will fight for our future.”
Americans Elect already has a place on the ballot in about 20 states; Texas is not one of them. National communications officer Sarah Malm says the group will have access in all 50 states by this summer. But, she adds, please don’t call it a third party.
“This is a process,” Malm said. “We’re going after the system, not creating a third party. We’re creating a third pathway for leadership to run in this country.”
The nomination process is entirely online at Americanselect.org. An Americans Elect candidate will be selected in June.
It’s a process the group believes will generate a populist candidate, one they say won’t pander to the fringes of the two parties, and who will engage younger voters.
“This is the way that they communicate, through social media, through digital channels,” Malm said. “And so part of Americans Elect is really embracing and harnessing the power of technology in order to bring the political process into the 21st century.”
But be it party or process, third-anything in a presidential race tends to finish … in third place. Even the popular and well-financed bid of Texas businessman Ross Perot in 1992 received just 18 percent of the vote and no electoral votes.
So what’s different this time?
“Certainly, the Internet makes third-party development plausible and maybe even the wave of the future,” said Bruce Buchanan, a government professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
Buchanan points out that the base of a third party often comes from disgruntled members of either or both of the two traditional parties. This has the effect of bringing those parties back towards the middle of the political spectrum.
Buchanan says that scenario could play out in the 2012 election. Consider the tea party’s effect on the GOP primaries. But since this movement appears to be process- and technology-based, it could have more staying power.
“What’s the wave of the future is the technology that allows people to be directly engaged in a nomination,” Buchanan said. “The Internet method of mobilizing voters and nomination programs, I think, can be influential down the road, depending on how it flies here in its first iteration.”
The group does hope to win in November but acknowledges its other goal is creating a place for future candidates, from the statehouse to Washington, to run.
Americans Elect will hold a panel discussion on the current primary process and the group’s election goals tonight at 6 at the LBJ School.
Podcast: Download (3.9MB)
