Michigan Bans Use of Crypto as Political Campaign Donations

The Michigan Department of State has formally barred digital currencies from being used as donations for political campaigns. According to a letter that was published last Thursday by the state’s Secretary of State, the law does not recognize crypto and associated virtual assets as political campaign donations because their values cannot be determined with absolute certainty.

This was in response to a letter from William Baker, a Michigan State Legislature candidate, that outlined some of his opinions on why state politicians should be allowed to receive digital currency campaign donations from their supporters. In the letter, Baker points that cryptocurrencies are a valid way to receive payments and donations and thus political campaigns should be no exceptions. He however also acknowledged that there were such issues as recording the value and utilization of these digital currencies that still need to be resolved.

“With some modest record keeping, donations of digital currencies can be an additional method of raising funds for political campaigns in the coming years, just as the internet first allowed political based websites to collect credit card donations roughly twenty to twenty-five years ago,” Baker’s letter read.

As it stands, Michigan politicians are allowed to accept non-monetary political campaign donations, which, much like most digital currencies rarely hold and a precise or value.

State Department Disagrees

The Michigan Secretary of State, Ruth Johnson, responded to Baker’s letter by stating that bitcoin and other digital currencies may not be used to make political campaign donations simply because “the value of these crypto assets is not fixed, and their volatility makes it impossible to assign an exact dollar value to them in administrative terms.”

“In the context of a contribution under the MCFA, an ascertainable monetary value is one that is exact, precise, and certain or can be determined with certainty. Where it cannot be determined the exact or precise dollar amount for a contribution made with Bitcoin at the time it is given, there can be no ascertainable monetary value,” an excerpt from the Michigan State Department’s letter read.

The State Department’s letter further compared digital currencies, more so bitcoin, to a security – it quoted legal precedents which effectively restricted the use of any financial assets save for those held by banking institutions for use in campaigns. Still, the department did acknowledge that bitcoin is analogous to a security, that is, both cannot be used “in and of themselves to purchase goods or services”, something that many crypto enthusiasts consider to be a highly contestable claim.

The main takeaway from the letter is that the crypto campaign donations are effectively illegal in Michigan mostly because of the reasons stated above and because the reporting requirements do not allow for multiple recordings that are required to capture various values that are likely to be held by digital assets at various points in the process.  These include such issues as the date of receipt by the candidate, the date of sale to the donor as well as the date of record on a campaign statement.