Hundreds of Bernie Sanders supporters accidentally donated more than the legal amount to his campaign

Bernie Sanders fundraising is begin investigated.

(Image credit: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

published 30 August 2016

Constant fundraising requests combined with enthusiastic supporters led to more than 1,500 donors contributing more than was legally allowed to the Bernie Sanders campaign, The Atlantic reports. "It's very similar to what drug dealers use or casinos use to get people to continue to play," Timothy Fong, the co-director of the Gambling Studies Program at UCLA, said of such fundraising requests, which incite urgency and impulsiveness.

Sanders' campaign was built on grassroots support, and it drew in many people who had never donated to a political campaign before and who perhaps didn't fully understand the federal laws or lost track of how much they had contributed. Many who donated did so frequently, and without an awareness of the $2,700 limit for individual contributions to a campaign.

The FEC requires that campaigns send refunds for any donation in excess of the legal limit within 60 days, and according to its federal filings, the Sanders campaign has issued more than $5 million in refunds. But several of the largest "over donors" to Sanders said they never received checks the campaign reported that it sent to them late in the spring, in some cases for several thousand dollars. "Are you kidding me? I barely even received a thank you from the campaign," said Annamarie Weaver of Chicago when I informed her that, according to records on the FEC website, the Sanders campaign had issued her a refund of $3,617 on May 1 and another one for $500 on May 31. "That's complete bulls---." [The Atlantic]

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.