Alexa offers a voice in politics

Amazon device helps donate to presidential race

Making a political donation to a presidential campaign is about to get as easy as — well, saying it out loud.

Starting next month, users of voice-controlled home assistant Amazon Alexa will be able to dictate their donations to a 2020 presidential campaign: “Alexa, I want to make a political contribution,” or “Alexa, donate (amount) to (candidate name).”

Alexa users can make donations of at least $5 and up to $200 to campaigns, and the feature is currently limited to presidential campaigns. Campaigns can sign up starting Thursday.

The latest evolution in campaign technology raises new questions about how such contributions will be screened to make sure they are legal. And it points to challenges federal regulators face in keeping up with such innovations without a functioning Federal Election Commission, which lost its voting quorum last month.

Alexa Political Contributions is among the new features Amazon announced Wednesday to help users find more information about the 2020 presidential election, including how candidates are polling, endorsements, and the dates of primary contests.

Donations will be made through Amazon Pay, which uses the credit card or bank account saved with a user’s Amazon account. The Alexa user also needs to allow voice purchasing.

Amazon will charge campaigns a payment processing transaction fee of 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per donation, Amazon spokeswoman Kerry Hall said.

Still, there are a number of questions about exactly how this would work, and any potential legal concerns that may arise.

For example: Will Amazon require all Alexa users participating in this feature to affirm that they are U.S. citizens or green-card holders, or over 18? (Amazon’s Q&A page clarifies that there are restrictions on who can make political contributions.)

What if a family member makes a donation using a shared Amazon account tied to another person’s credit card? Or a house guest who is not legally allowed to make political donations under U.S. law?

To prevent unintended donations, users can set up a verification code that they recite to Alexa before the donation is processed, Amazon says. But setting it up is optional.

“Certainly, as people expect voice assistant devices to do tasks for them, I could see why this is attractive,” said Richard Hasen, an elections law expert at the University of California at Irvine. “But I do think it raises a number of legal concerns that will have to be fully fleshed out to develop such a system.”

It’s unclear how many campaigns would participate. At least one presidential campaign — that of South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg — said it is in talks with Amazon.

The company will not report directly to the Federal Election Commission or make donor information public, Hall said. Instead, it will provide to campaigns the donors’ name, email address and addresses.

Federal regulations allow commercial vendors to process donations for campaigns as long as they meet certain requirements.