The get-out-the-vote campaign supporting former President Donald Trump is pushing the boundaries of new regulations adopted by the Federal Election Commission regarding how his campaign is allowed to coordinate with outside groups.

The Trump campaign relied heavily on outside groups like Turning Point Action and billionaire Elon Musk’s America PAC to organize its field game and get out the vote. The big advantage for outside groups is that they are not subject to the same campaign finance rules as an actual campaign.

For example, Turning Point Action claims to run the field game for Trump in Arizona and recently combined its operations with America PAC to monitor voter turnout in Wisconsin, but has not disclosed any of its finances since 2022. The group also claims to have staff. working in Michigan, Nevada, Georgia and Pennsylvania.

Similarly, Musk’s America PAC recently raised $87 million, with $75 million coming directly from Musk himself. This far exceeds the standard contribution limit of $3,300 for individuals who contribute to a candidate’s campaign.

In previous elections, PACs were prohibited from coordinating with campaigns. As the Supreme Court explained in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commissionpreventing a campaign from coordinating with outside groups like PACs has played a role in preventing corruption or the appearance of corruption.

While the coordination ban was imperfectly enforced in the past, the FEC issued a notice in March allowing outside groups to coordinate with canvassers, opening the door to close collaboration between campaigns and groups like Turning Point and America PAC.

For example, in May, Turning Point field manager Luke Malace said in a speech to the Monrow County GOP in Michigan that when Trump says the election is “too important to rig,” it’s because “we are now officially a branch of the party”. the Trump campaign, Turning Point Action, is about getting out the vote, continuing the get out the vote effort.

At an event in August, Malace reiterated his description, saying: “Now we are an official arm in the election race. »

“They’re kind of doing their own thing, kind of, and we’re doing our thing, but we’re in coordination with each other, so we share data and everything, so we know what we need to do, they know what we’re doing,” Malace said during August’s Super Chase event in Kent County.

Tyler Boyer, who is chief operating officer of Turning Point Action, described a major data-sharing operation between the Trump campaign and Turning Point during a September event with Meshawn Maddock, who served as co-chair of the Michigan GOP and fake elector. for Trump, and Shane Trejo, a Republican Party operative infamous for calling Charlottesville white supremacists “civil rights heroes.”

“How often is voter data uploaded? Daily,” Bowyer said, adding that “the left has completely subverted this entire process by creating organizations that collect data and distribute it quickly. Our side has done almost nothing, if anything, on this side, so there are only a few different places to consolidate all the data. So that’s also a good reason to use what we’re doing in our candidacy and also what the GOP or the RNC is doing. And besides, we share all our data with the Trump campaign.”

The new coordination rules have also opened the door for those working with outside groups to hold closed-door meetings with campaign members or even the candidate under the guise that they are discussing canvassing.

Lacy Nagao, director of Chase the Vote for Turning Point Action, revealed during a session at Turning Point’s “People’s Convention” in June that Bowyer had met with Trump privately.

“In fact, our COO, Tyler Bowyer, met with the Trump campaign just a few weeks ago and went over everything and they are completely on board. President Trump actually tweeted something pretty funny, he said, “Everyone go apply for a job at Turning Point Action, be an election chaser.” So he agrees 100%,” Nagao said. “We got Trump’s support for this operation.”

Saurav Ghosh, director of federal campaign finance reform at the Campaign Legal Center, told Salon that this type of coordination between candidates and outside groups like Turning Point Action is exactly what the FEC has opened the door to in its recent rule change and that “I don’t think a super PAC would have done it without this ruling giving them cover.”

“They basically created a loophole that super PACs and candidates immediately took advantage of to spend millions of dollars on our election,” Ghosh said. “This is very concerning because super PACs are a primary vehicle for special interests to exert influence over our elections.”

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Turning Point Action and similar groups are of particular concern to Ghosh because the group, as a 501c4 nonprofit, is not required to disclose its donors, meaning “voters don’t even know who is funding the operation “.

“It’s pretty much the nightmare scenario when you have special interests of wealthy billionaires, who are not only allowed to invest an unlimited amount of money in an operation, but their contributions are also hidden,” Ghosh said .

Ghosh went on to note that when outside organizations and campaign officials or the candidate is allowed to meet with outside groups to coordinate canvassing, there is little that watchdogs or the FEC can do to verify that their conversations are limited to canvassing.

“This is going to be a bipartisan practice and therefore a bipartisan issue,” Ghosh said. “I think what people need to know is that when this happens and super PACs get more access and influence, the real people who are hurt are the voters.”

Turning Point Action did not immediately respond to a request for comment.