Americans Elect, a national group with deep pockets, is taking an unorthodox path to put a third-party presidential candidate on the ballot in Maine and elsewhere in 2012.

However, the group’s break with convention — and its proximity to success — is also drawing criticism and questions about its motives.

Riding a wave of public disenchantment with hyper-partisan politics, Americans Elect is working to gather 2.9 million signatures in 50 states to create a placeholder for a third-party candidate. The candidate has not been named. People will choose the bipartisan ticket during an online convention in June 2012.

The presidential nominee, the group says, must pick a running mate that’s either an independent or from the opposite party.

At a glance, the scheme may appear to be far-fetched. However, Americans Elect is deploying methods that are gaining popularity — and controversy — following recent court decisions on campaign finance laws.

And it’s paying off. Americans Elect has already gathered 1.6 million signatures and has secured ballot access in more than a dozen states. Last week, the group announced its paid signature-gatherers had been dispatched to Maine, where it hopes to obtain at least 50,000 signatures by the November deadline.

Peter Ackerman, the group’s CEO, said the goal is to have a “second competition” in 2012.

“We want to see a ticket emerge that isn’t tethered to the ideologies of the far right or the far left or any specific special interests,” Ackerman said. “Everything we’re doing is predicated on the idea that if you can change the way people get elected, you can change the way they govern.”

Americans Elect’s message is a populist one. It hopes to seize on what Ackerman calls a “dysfunctional” political climate.

The concept isn’t novel.

No Labels, a national advocacy organization that promotes moderate candidates in both parties, rose to prominence during the 2010 election. In Maine, independent candidate for governor Eliot Cutler recently launched OneMaine, another group designed to appeal to the center of the electorate.

Criticism of those organizations has varied. Some say they are overly idealistic endeavors that ignore the realities of difficult political choices. Others say they’re a cynical attempt to confuse disenfranchised voters.

Americans Elect is the offspring of Unity08 , the group backed by Democrat Hamilton Jordan, who was President Jimmy Carter’s former chief of staff; Republican Doug Bailey, who worked for President Gerald Ford; and Angus King, Maine’s two-term independent governor.

Bailey, now with Americans Elect, attempted to draft New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2008. Jordan has also joined the organization.

Other members include Kahlil Byrd, a GOP strategist who worked for Massachusetts’ Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick, and Doug Schoen, a pollster for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign and Bloomberg.

In addition to political clout, the group benefits from big-time financial backing.

The group’s 501 (c)(4) nonprofit status protects the identity of its funding sources — an issue that has already raised alarms from outside watchdog groups.

Nonetheless, tax documents the group filed prior to obtaining nonprofit status provide a snapshot of Americans Elect’s financial backing, which the group says has exceeded $20 million.

Ackerman says 3,000 individuals have contributed to the organization. One of them is Ackerman’s father, Peter Ackerman, a private investment executive who reportedly made millions of dollars selling junk bonds in the 1980s. According to tax documents, Peter Ackerman has given at least $1.55 million to Americans Elect.

Elliot Ackerman declined to disclose other donors, saying it was up to them to publicize their involvement.

“Ultimately, there’s a lot of folks out there who are afraid of retribution from the two major parties,” said Elliot Ackerman, adding that some donors “do major business with the government.”

The group’s decision to protect the identities of its donors has elicited criticism from organizations such as Democracy 21, a nonprofit that advocates the removal of private money from politics. Last week, the group challenged Americans Elect’s nonprofit status with the Internal Revenue Service, saying the organization was a political organization designed to elect and defeat candidates — tasks it’s not permitted to do.

J. Gerald Hebert, executive director of The Campaign Legal Center, said that Americans Elect was an example of political groups taking advantage of nonprofit protections and lax enforcement.

“These shadow campaign operations have mushroomed since the last election cycle, with both Democrats and Republicans now in on the act and not even bothering to maintain a facade that they have any real purpose other than to elect members of their respective parties,” Hebert wrote.

Elliot Ackerman insists that Americans Elect’s only goal is to ensure ballot access for a third-party candidate in 2012. He said the group has no intention of helping that candidate get elected once chosen by the online vote. Such advocacy, he said, would be illegal.

He hinted that concerns about the private donors might be originating from a political establishment that feels threatened by the emergence of a third party.

“All we’re offering up is competition,” he said. “The only thing we’re funding is ballot access and a website. The only thing I can see as being controversial about that is competition.”

He added, “It’s healthy for us, especially at a time when our politics doesn’t seem to be serving up real solutions to the American people’s problems.”

The 2012 election will be different, Ackerman said. “It’s going to be a three-horse race and the third horse is going to be very interesting.”

As the race heats up, Ackerman expects more attention from emerging rivals. He quoted Bailey, the Republican strategist at Americans Elect, in predicting how it will unfold.

He said, “Doug likes to say, ‘First they ignore us, then they deride us, then they attack us and then we win.’ “

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This story has been corrected to show that J. Gerald Hebert is the executive director of The Campaign Legal Center.