Want to contribute money to a candidate but don’t want anyone to be able to trace that contribution?

Under current Alabama law, it’s an easy thing to do — just funnel money from one political action committee to another before it goes to the candidate.

Such practice makes it almost impossible for the public to know who is seeking to influence people running for office. It happens in almost every major election — we have even seen hundreds of thousands of dollars funneled into local campaigns here in recent years.

Though we are more than a year away from the next major election in the state, gubernatorial candidates are already saying they are willing to support a ban on PAC-to-PAC transfers, even though they also say they will be taking money from PACs.

To be fair, right now, any candidate who wants to be viable is just about forced to take that money — Gov. Riley’s 2006 re-election bid cost almost $13 million.

But we also want to see some real headway in banning the PAC transfers.

PACs serve a purpose in providing like-minded people the chance to speak with one voice, giving them more influence as a group than they would as individuals. They have a constitutional right to speak out and to contribute to campaigns.

But the political money laundering that has become such a hallmark of these organizations is far too often used as a way to deceive voters.

Just as PACs have a right to be involved in the political process, the citizens also have a right to know how money is flowing into election coffers and from who.

Public transparency in government is an essential component to any democracy, and that is no less true during an election cycle.

With high-profile issues such as gambling, health care, tax reform and the like almost continually on the table in Montgomery, special interest groups — like out-of-state gambling businesses — are always looking for more ways to peddle their influence in the state capitol.

And they find it far too easy to do under the radar through PACs.

State Rep. Jeff McLaughlin has pushed for such a ban every year since he was first elected to the House — where it has passed unanimously, only to watch it die in the Senate.

Those failures come despite vocal support for such a ban from both Republicans and Democrats.

So as we gear up for next year’s elections, citizens need to keep this in mind: We have heard all the promises to end this deceptive practice in Alabama again and again, and every time, those promises have been broken.

This time, the voters need to do a better job of holding candidates to their word.