I’ll try and summarize, but you really have to read the article.
Two pieces:
1) Every voter gets $50 to distribute to candidates. $10 for The House, $15 for The Senate, $25 for The President. This includes the primaries. Invidual limits are also raised dramatically. This produces a pool of a few billion dollars to be used in the election.
2) Contributions are made through the FEC. They collect and distribute the money. The kicker is that the candidate does not know who gave them the money, they have no way of knowing who any individual donor gave their money to.
It is an oddly compelling idea. And the more you read (read the article!) the better it seems. But I had one thought, which a commenter posted before I could.
Won’t work
Donors would require some sort of receipt from the FEC to demonstrate where their money has gone, or else the FEC itself would be open to charges of fraud in their allocation of money. Then all you’d have to do is show your candidate the receipt and voila, influence obtained (and without the inconvenience of public disclosure).— Noman
I agree. Anyone know more about this, or see a way out?