BIRD IS THE WORD

GOP Used Twitter to Flout Election Laws

Anonymous accounts.

Republicans used Twitter to circumvent campaign-finance regulations in their massive win in the 2014 midterm elections. Under current law, outside groups, such as PACs, can spend unlimited amounts on elections, as long as they do not coordinate with the political campaigns. However, via anonymous Twitter accounts, political operatives shared private–and expensive–internal polls to “signal to the campaign committees where to focus precious time and resources,” reports CNN. The Twitter accounts were public, so it’s hazy if it is considered private coordination. They would tweet messages that would be nonsensical to a normal user, like: “CA-40/43-44/49-44/44-50/36-44/49-10/16/14-52-->49/476-10s.” But that tweet would convey polling data for House races to anyone in the know. Karl Rove’s super PAC, American Crossroads, was one of the groups using the Twitter method, as well as the nonprofit American Action Network and the National Republican Congressional Committee.