Thanks for your comment.

LBG also observed that the Edwards’ campaign may have made a clerical error. However, it was practically impossible to reach anyone in the campaign–even after physically visiting their offices, which are locked tight. It’s also easy to give them the benefit of the doubt–we usually do.

However, after spending hours and hours checking and re-checking this information, we’re wondering why they shouldn’t do the same?

Also, there is more to come at a later date on this matter, so I’ll just leave it there.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by, read and comment!

Pat,

Welcome back!

That assumes of course that there are small donors who have requested refunds and were refused. Maybe most small donors haven’t bothered to ask for refunds because the amounts were too small to be worthwhile, or weren’t aware that Edwards was even giving refunds, or else contributed cash and don’t have any documentation for their donations. Whereas large contributors would have a much greater interest in seeking the return of their $2,300 investments.

It’s also possible that the Edwards campaign mistakenly filled out the forms when indicating that these were primary-designated contributions. There’s an easy way to check: See if some of the people receiving $2,300 refunds had previously contributed the $2,300 limit. If so, they could not have legally given $4,600 (unless it was from a married couple), so that second $2,300 had to be for the general election and had to be refunded. If that’s the case, the Edwards campaign will just file an amended campaign report reclassifying the contributions as being designated for the general election.

When you note that NONE of the refunds were designated as having been for the general election, that’s actually strong evidence that you’ve merely observed a clerical error. After all, you’d expect at least a few instances of refunds for general election contributions, not ZERO.

But again, kudos for doing the hard investigative work of digging through piles of campaign reports.