interesting read...
INTRODUCTION
This Essay explores a fascinating new truth: because of the Internet,
governments, corporations, and citizens of other countries can now
meaningfully participate in United States elections. They can phone bank,
editorialize, and organize in ways that impact a candidate’s image, the narrative
structure of a campaign, and the mobilization of base support. Foreign
governments can bankroll newspapers that will be read by millions of voters.
162 BERKELEY JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW [Vol. 27:1
Foreign companies can enlist employees in massive cross-continental email
campaigns. Foreign activists can set up offline meetings and organize door-todoor
campaigns in central Ohio. They can, in short, influence who wins and
who loses. Depending upon your intuitions, this might seem like a very good
thing, or the beginning of the end of democratic self-governance. While this has
yet to occur on a massive scale, signs abound that extraterritorial electioneering
is beginning.
During the last two Presidential elections, foreigners made their voices
heard during the election. Newspapers from around the world reflected support
for one of the two candidates.1 Because of the web, millions of Americans read
those editorials. But the involvement of foreigners extended beyond the
traditional press. Consider these existing examples of extraterritorial
electioneering, reflecting the use of cross-border canvassing, cross-national
volunteering, and cross-national lobbying:
1. A group of British nationals spearheaded a letter writing campaign to
Iowa voters. Organized by the British left in conjunction with the American
left, a simple website allowed people to download addresses of potentially
sympathetic Iowa voters, and then check off “letter sent” online so that others
would not send letters to the same person. The letters provided additional
information about the cost of war and the corruption associated with it.2
2. A Chinese national living in San Francisco volunteered to design an
open source web tool for a major presidential candidate, spending over 100
hours on creating the tool.3
3. The Pakistani government hired lobbyists to “promote the enhancement
of the [Pakistani Embassy’s] dialogue with U.S. leaders and government
officials.”4 the lobbyists contributed heavily to political campaigns.5
These are just a few examples. This kind of out-of-area electioneering is
evolutionary. Interstate influence, such as Californians campaigning for Bernie
Sanders’ Senate race in Vermont, is setting a pattern for international influence.
cont...
http://www.boalt.org/bjil/docs/BJIL27.1_Teachout.pdf
