It hopes to select an alternate presidential ticket through an online, open convention. Its status as a social welfare group has enabled it to keep private its financiers even as it tries to qualify as a new party.County registrar offices across California on Thursday will begin receiving the product of an audacious enterprise — nearly 1.6 million signatures collected by Americans Elect, a group attempting to ride exasperation with the nation's political leaders into a place on the ballot in all 50 states by 2012.