Texting Approved for Political Donations

Giving money to politicians is about to get a little easier. The Federal Election Commission unanimously approved a proposal to allow campaigns to accept donations via text message, helping candidates solicit spontaneous donations from supporters.

Many campaigns already allow supporters to donate via smartphones, but those contributions are routed over the Internet and require contact and billing information. The new proposal will allow campaign supporters to quickly text small-dollar donations that would be deducted from their monthly cellphone bills. Under the plan that got the commission's nod on Monday, an aggregating company would process the donations and make sure no phone number sends a campaign more than $50. Federal election rules set a $50 limit on anonymous campaign donations. The aggregator would forward between 50% and 70% of the donation to the campaign within 10 days to comply with federal campaign-finance rules. The rest of the money would be split between the aggregator and wireless carriers as processing fees.