Political giving via mobile devices surges

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., holds up an Apple iPhone during a recent fundraiser in California. (Danny Moloshok/AP)

Mobile devices have changed the way we read news, shop for shoes and look for romance. It’s also quickly changing how people donate to political campaigns.

Officials with Democratic online fundraising machine, ActBlue, said this week that mobile users account for more than 31% of the donations it has processed for candidates and committees so far this month. That’s up from 19.9% in October 2013.

Some 1.8 million ActBlue also donors have “express accounts” that store their personal and payment information, allowing them to make political donations with a single click or two.

ActBlue, which has processed more than $141.4 million in contributions to Democratic candidates and groups this year, is at the forefront of the push by campaigns to attract small-dollar contributors. Those donors are crucial to politicians because they can make repeat donations before they hit the $2,700 cap on what an individual can give to a single federal candidate.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is the small-dollar champion of the Democratic presidential field. Seventy-one percent of his donations through Sept. 30 have come from people who donated $200 or less to his campaign, according to a tally by non-partisan Campaign Finance Institute. By comparison, 17% of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton’s contributions came from small donors.