Political committee

WinRed

Documented money flows

POL-3.12: In the 2020 cycle WinRed reported $154.7 million in refunded individual contributions on $2.085 billion received, or 7.4 percent, and ActBlue reported $97.9 million refunded on $4.243 billion, or 2.3 percent.
POL-3.13: On 29 April 2021 the attorneys general of New York, Connecticut, Maryland and Minnesota wrote to WinRed about pre-checked recurring boxes, and on 6 May 2021 the FEC asked Congress to require affirmative consent for recurring contributions and to bar implied consent through pre-checked boxes. In 2023 the Eighth Circuit held in WinRed v. Ellison that federal election law did not block the Minnesota investigation.
POL-3.14: A study of WinRed data on 14.8 million donations from 2.6 million donors estimated that weekly pre-checked recurring boxes, adopted by eight Republican campaign websites in 2020, increased donations by over $43 million and requested refunds by almost $3 million.
POL-3.16: WinRed's published account states that ActBlue pioneered recurring and pre-checked boxes and that pre-checked boxes appeared on ActBlue pages for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. One press account reports that ActBlue began phasing them out in July 2021.

Exhibit 732 accessed 9 November 2026. Federal Election Commission (OpenFEC API): OpenFEC committee totals, 2016-2024 cycles: WinRed, ActBlue, campaign and party committees
Exhibit 734 7 February 2023. U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit: WinRed, Inc. v. Ellison, 59 F.4th 934 (8th Cir. 2023), No. 22-1238
Exhibit 736 2023. Posner, Simonov, Mrkva, Johnson (PNAS 120): Dark defaults: How choice architecture steers political campaign donations
Exhibit 738 3 April 2021. WinRed: The Facts the NYT Ignored
Exhibit 739 3 April 2021. The New York Times (Shane Goldmacher): How Trump Steered Supporters Into Unwitting Donations