I recall from a few months ago that there was much concern in the conservative blogosphere over the Obama campaign seal.  I understood what the campaign was trying to do - they wanted the people to get used to the idea that Obama could be president.  Of course, The Weekly Standard opined that this seal was somehow a misappropriation of the seal of the President of the United States, and thus, a violation of 18 USC Sec. 713.  In actuality, it was simply a stylized seal.

The same cannot be said for the seal of the “Office of the President Elect”, pictured in the image below:

According to 18 USC Sec. 713:

18 USC Sec. 713 …
(a) Whoever knowingly displays any printed or other likeness of the great seal of the United States, or of the seals of the President or the Vice President of the United States, or the seal of the United States Senate, or the seal of the United States House of Representatives, or the seal of the United States Congress, or any facsimile thereof, in, or in connection with, any advertisement, poster, circular, book, pamphlet, or other publication, public meeting, play, motion picture, telecast, or other production, or on any building, monument, or stationery, for the purpose of conveying, or in a manner reasonably calculated to convey, a false impression of sponsorship or approval by the Government of the United States or by any department, agency, or instrumentality thereof, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

Looking at that seal, and the logo present on the change.gov non-government web site, it is clear that the seal presented is actually the Great Seal of the United States.  Take a look at the images below.

The seal on top is from the non-governmental “Office of the President Elect”, the image in the middle is from the Great Seal of the United States, and the bottom image is an overlay of the two.  It’s pretty clear that they are simply using the the Great Seal as their logo.  The important distinction between this “seal” and the earlier campaign seal, is that rather than use a stylized seal, this one uses the exact image from the Great Seal.

As a singular offense, this may not be significant (though still punishable under the law).  However, the use of an official government seal in concert with an official sounding, yet fictitious ”Office” and the .gov domain name, it’s clear that the intent of this site is to convince the visitors to this site that it is somehow an official government site, of the people, by the people and for the people, which it is not.

While we still plan on continuing to apply pressure on Obama to release his complete donor records, something else caught our eye today - the new Obama transition web site www.change.gov for the “Office of the President-Elect”.  We also came across this picture of Obama giving a speech behind a lectern with a plaque labeled “The Office of the President Elect” accompanied by an official looking seal.

Only one problem - there is no such thing as the governmental “Office of the President Elect” and constitutionally, Obama only becomes the President elect once the electoral college has voted.

As it turns out, the “Office of the President Elect” is the invention of the Obama-Biden Transition Project, a 501c(4) organization.  This private organization is overseen by three co-chairs selected by Obama, and is staffed by non-government employees.  So, if this is a private organization, how did it get the .gov domain name?  That’s a great question.

The GSA oversees the .gov domain and is pretty specific about who can get these domains:

Registrations that qualify for a .gov domain

• U.S. Governmental departments, programs, and agencies on the federal level
• Federally recognized Indian Tribes (-NSN.gov domain)
• State governmental entities/programs
• Cities and townships represented by an elected body of officials
• Counties and parishes represented by an elected body of officials
• U.S. territories

It’s clear that based on these requirements, there is simply no reason that the private Obama-Biden Transition Project should have been issued this domain name - but that’s not the most concerning part.

The Obama-Biden Transition Project is an extension of the Obama campaign, and there are several problems with their .gov website:

1. It features a fictitious government agency name and seal
2. It features campaign material including attacks on the McCain plan
3. The site collects email addresses under the guise of official government business
4. The site itself is hosted by Blue State Digital, the very firm that is responsible for providing his suspect online fundraising tools and methods!

Several questions now emerge:

• How did the Obama-Biden Transition Project get the .gov domain name if it is not a government agency?
• Why does the Obama campaign use what appears to be a fictitious title of office and corresponding seal (which actually appears to be based on the Great Seal of the United States)?
• Where do the email addresses collected on the change.gov site go and for what purpose are they collected?

UPDATE: Keith Thurston from the GSA, the agency responsible for supporting the Presidential Transition, was kind enough to respond to our inquiries with the following email:

This is in response to your question concerning www.Change.Gov submitted to the Gov Domain registrar.   The Office of the President-elect is specifically recognized by federal law, specifically  – The Presidential Transition Act of 1963, as amended (3 USC 102 note). It is a unique entity that is entitled to government support while still retaining characteristics of a private organization.   Section 3 of the Presidential Transition Act  authorizes the General Services Administration to provide services and support to the Office of the President-elect beginning the day after the election until 30 days after the inauguration.  Based on the federally recognized status of the Office of the President-elect, and GSA’s responsibility to support the Office, we have determined that it is appropriate for them to use a .gov domain.  This is the same conclusion that we reached in the presidential transition of 2000-2001.

Below is a listing of other functions that we perform for president-elects as they enter office.  We also support the departing president with certain functions after they leave office.

According to Keith, the domain name was issued in accordance with the Presidential Transition Act of 1963. Only one problem, nowhere in the 1963 Act (as amended) does it mention the “Office of the President Elect”.  The code  does mention that the GSA provide “Communications services found necessary by the President-elect or Vice President-elect”, but it says nothing about establishing an “Office of the President Elect” nor does it mention providing a .gov domain name for services that are hosted by a private company, for use on a site that contains campaign materials.

The problems here are significant, yet they are generally being ignored by the media.  The usage of the title, the seal and the .gov domain name confers a sense of legitimacy and accountability to a private organization that is, sadly, not required to follow the same disclosure rules that a legitimate government entity is required to follow.

For this article, we researched the following documents and found no reference to the “Office of the President Elect”:

• The Presidential Transition Act of 1963 (3 U.S.C. 102)
  
• The Presidential Transition Act of 2000
• George W. Bush Executive Order: Facilitation of A Presidential Transition