d|i|s|i|n|f|o|r|m|a|t|i|o|n - Capitol Punishment: Does Voteauction.com Subvert Democracy?

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Capitol Punishment: Does Voteauction.com Subvert Democracy?
"We were both doing this as a political satire or media intervention kind of thing."
~ ~ Voteauction.com founder James Baumgartner.

"We're not running projects like that to make hoaxes. We're running businesses."
~ ~ Maverick Austrian entrepreneur Hans Bernhard.

"If it's true it's just been a hoax, then the only way they can prove that is to open their site to FBI technologists. Otherwise, we have no way of verifying."
~ ~ Voting Integrity Project president Deborah Phillips.

"These people are just 50 years ahead of their time in seeing that the ultimate destination of the current [electoral] process is that everything will be for sale."
~ ~ James Raskin, American University law professor.

"[If this is bribery then so is] a lot of what goes on in the halls of Congress and in the White House."
~ ~ National Voting Rights Institute executive director John Bonifaz.

The 2000 presidential campaign signalled a sea-change in American politics, from D2KLA and challenges to the corporate-owned debates commission that disallowed three-way debates, to Ralph Nader's creative idealism versus Gore and Shrub. To see this legitimacy shift in microcosm, just study the Voteauction.com controversy.

Founded by New York political science graduate James Baumgartner, Voteauction.com billed itself as "the only election platform channelling 'soft money' directly to the democratic consumer."

Baumbartner's satire about campaign financing and free-market economics set off a scandal after a Wired News article (August 17th, 2000) discovered the site. After lawsuit threats by the New York State Board of Elections and Chicago Board of Elections officials (and heavy-handed comparisons to treason), Baumgartner sold the site on August 18th, 2000, to maverick Austrian entrepreneur Hans Bernhard, who re-opened it. The deal was brokered by legendary 'culture jammers' RTMark.

On October 21st, 2000, the company Domain Bank illegally froze the Voteauction.com domain, capitulating to authorities. Bernhard immediately registered the site as Vote-Auction.com with a non-U.S. company. On November 1st, 2000, Network Solutions (the for-profit company that administers .com, .net, and .org domains) violated international law by removing Vote-Auction.com from its root servers.

U.S. media used double-binding 'closed logic' to define Voteauction.com: either it was parody gone too far (Baumgartner) or shameless commercialism (Bernhard). Any other interpretations (such as a site that was both parody and political forum) were mooted. Past initiatives such as R.U. Sirius' Revolution party were unmentioned, consigned by unspoken consensus to the historical dustbin.

Soundbite-worthy sources such as an increasingly shrill Deborah Phillips (Voting Integrity Project) won out over the chorus of law academics and critics who pointed to current campaign financing practices. The Chicago Board of Elections officials, who filed an election fraud lawsuit against Voteauction.com, and California Secretary of State Bill Jones, received prominent coverage for their comments.

Jones went as far as to challenge Constitutional free speech provisions when he stated on CNN's Burden of Proof program (October 24th, 2000) that "whether this is a parody . . . makes absolutely no difference whatsoever in California . . . because you are talking about the corruption of the voting process."

RTMark and the American Civil Liberties Union had entered the fray by November 5th, 2000. RTMark questioned Network Solution's actions, and quoted new ICANN director Andy Mueller-Maguhn: "I guess we will have to do something about this." The ACLU stressed freedom of speech provisions are protected.

A further spin-off were the many vote-swapping sites targeting Gore and Nader voters which sprang up in Voteauction.com's wake. Hopefully, the Voteauction.com debacle made some people pause to question why they were voting for two corporate pawns.

Research by Alex Burns
alex.burns@disinfo.net

Voteauction.com
Despite at least four separate attempts to shut the site down, Voteaction lives! Log in and see what all the controversy is about.
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RTMark: Voteauction.com
The RTMark pranksters reveal their brokerage of Voteauction.com, and offer a powerful case-study in how to hijack the mass-mind. Highly recommended!
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Chicago Board Of Elections v Voteauction.com
Legal documents pertaining to the Board of Election Commissioners of the City of Chicago's lawsuit against Voteauction.com. Interesting for research purposes.
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Voteswap 2000
Voteauction.com has spawned a micro-trend: vote swapping, er, political "discussion forum" Web sites. Count 'em: One . . .
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Win-Win Campaign
Two . . .
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Winchell's Nader Trader
Three . . .
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Vote Exchange
Four . . .
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Nader Trader
Five . . .
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VoteSwap.com
Six . . .
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TradeVotes.com
Seven . . .
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SwapVote.com
Eight . . .
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Vote Exchange 2000
Nine . . .
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VoteExhange
Ten . . .
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Nader's Raiders For Gore
Eleven . . .
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Greens For Gore
Twelve . . .
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In Defense Of Nadertrading
Thirteen . . .
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VoteTrader.org
Fourteen . . .
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Nader Or Gore?
Fifteen . . .
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Close Vote? You Can Bid On It
This Wired News article (August 17th, 2000) by Mark K. Anderson covers initial reactions from legal specialists about the Voteauction.com site. Survey the calm before the storm hit.
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Straight Talk From Voteauction.com
This Auctionwatch.com article (August 18th, 2000) by Chris Connor surveys the history of vote rigging, and how Voteauction.com outbid Ebay for press attention.
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Web Site Offers To Sell U.S. Presidential Votes
This CNN article (August 18th, 2000) by Richard Stenger features comments from Voteauction.com founder James Baumgartner, a New York political science student graduate: "I'm being realistic. Most people have an honest view of how the candidates are selling themselves. Voters should be included in the situation and get some of the windfall."
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Voteauction To Lose Domain Name
This Independent Standard article (October 19th, 2000) by Ronna Abramson announces a preliminary injunction against Voteauction.com by the state of Illinois, and warned that Domain Bank was about to pull the plug on the site's domain name.
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Personal (Campaign) Finance
This ABC News article (August 20th, 2000) by Sascha Segan shows that the mainstream press conglomerates can be slow to catch on. Features some interesting 1996 campaign funding statistics.
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VoteAuction.com & The Whack-A-Mole Defense
This TechnoDemocracy Now article (October 22nd, 2000) by Thom Wysong explains Voteauction.com's shift to Europe, and how to get around DNS entries.
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Voteauction Bids The Dust
This Wired News article (August 22nd, 2000) by Mark K. Anderson announces the death of Voteauction.com. Founder James Baumgartner is unrepentant and witty: "I think that that along with what was going on with eBay and Yahoo auctions shows that this is something people are really concerned about: If the politicians are selling their votes -- and they clearly are -- then the people should be allowed to as well."
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VIP Report
Voting Integrity Project president Deborah M. Phillips gets vitriolic in this missive (August 23rd, 2000) about the Voteauction.com site: "Imagine if there were widespread unfettered participation in this site -- then the presidential race truly would go to the highest bidder! This website is an INSULT to every American who has ever fought to protect our freedom or for the right to vote in America!" Huh, you don't already believe the elections go to the highest bidder?
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Jones Issues Warning Against On-line Vote Buying Schemes
This press release (August 22nd, 2000) from California Secretary of State Bill Jones may have triggered the demise of Voteauction.com. Jones starts: "Any individual who attempts to buy or sell votes, whether through an Internet auction site or personal communication, is guilty of a felony and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law." I guess, by this logic, that all elected politicians are therefore unprosecuted felons.
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Wanna Buy My Vote? Fuhgeddaboutit
This Independent Standard article (August 21st, 2000) by Ronna Abramson announces the death of Voteauction.com, and goes to Douglas Kellner, a a New York City Board of Elections commissioner, for comments. Kellner is outshined by James Baumgartner: "I thought it'd be more direct and more democratic to have these voters make money from their vote."
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Buy This Vote!
This Slate article (August 23rd, 2000) by Jeremy Derfner examines the history of vote-scamming. Features some ironic commentary from National Voting Rights Institute executive director John Bonifaz, who argued that if you believe Voteauction.com is indulging in bribery, then so is "a lot of what goes on in the halls of Congress and in the White House."
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Votes Up For Auction Draw Official Enquiries
This USA Today article (August 23rd, 2000) by Janet Kornblum shows how sources can shape perceptions about issues. Voting Integrity Project president Deborah Phillips states: "I love the Internet. But the more I've looked at this issue, the more concerned I've become, because there's a different mind-set that goes hand-in-hand with Internet entrepreneurs." The same mind-set as major party campaign financiers, perhaps?
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Bidding For Ballots: Democracy On The Blocks
This CNN transcript of the program Burden of Proof (October 24th, 2000) features legal analyses of online vote auctioneering and the future status of Voteauction.com. RealVideo version also available.
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Bidding For Ballots: Democracy On The Blocks
This CNN RealVideo of the program Burden of Proof (October 24th, 2000) features legal analyses of online vote auctioneering and the future status of Voteauction.com. Transcript version also available. 21 minutes.
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Vote-selling Web Site To Be Revived, Possibly Offshore
This CNN article (August 25th, 2000) by Richard Stenger discusses the shift of Voteauction.com from America to maverick Austrian businessman Hans Bernhard.
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Thousands Sign Up To Sell Votes
This Wired News article (September 22nd, 2000) by Mark K. Anderson suggests that over 6000 Americans had signed up with Voteauction.com to sell their votes. Voting Integrity Project president Deborah Phillips continues her media campaign: "Why isn't the Justice Department getting involved? Why hasn't there been any comment from the White House? Why hasn't Congress held any hearings?" I'll give you a clue: Joe McCarthy is long dead.
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Voteauction Booth Is Closed
This Wired News article (October 21st, 2000) by Mark K. Anderson announces the shutdown of the Austrian Voteauction.com site. The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners still plan to proceed with litigation against founder James Baumgartner and maverick Austrian businessman Hans Bernhard. Baumgartner states: "We were both doing this as a political satire or media intervention kind of thing."
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Vote-Auction Sidesteps Legalities
This Associated Press article (October 21st, 2000) notes that Hans Bernhard has moved the controversial site to Germany. Note that the site participants has suddenly swelled to 21,000: press scare tactics?
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Selling Votes Or Peddling Lies?
This Wired News article (October 30th, 2000) by Mark K. Anderson details the lawsuit against Voteauction.com founder James Baumgartner, who maintains he was parodying the American political system, and current owner Hans Bernhard, who wants to make money from it. Note the "closed logic" and negative outcome of the article's title (are these our only interpretations?). A shrill Deborah Phillips offers some scary thoughts: "If it's true it's just been a hoax, then the only way they can prove that is to open their site to FBI technologists. Otherwise, we have no way of verifying." Note how the press coverage has created an "excluded middle" between Baumgartner (parody) and Bernhard (commerce), whereas both aims could be legally acheived by an online discussion forum that does not sell votes. Do we resort to FBI surveillance tools such as Carnivore?
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Vote Trade: The Democratic Way?
This Wired News article (October 31st, 2000) by Farhad Manjoo details the sudden explosion in vote swapping Web sites, after a media flurry over Voteauction.com.
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Vote Swapper Swatted Down
This Wired News article (October 31st, 2000) by Farhad Manjoo details how California Secretary of State Bill Jones has gone on the warpath against vote swapping sites such as Voteswap2000.com.
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Domain Bank Inc
The company that registered Voteauction.com's domain name didn't hesitate to cooperate with authorities once the media frenzy was underway. Did they do the right thing?
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Americans Sell Their Votes For $10 Each
This Cluebot.com posting (September 29th, 2000) summarizes the Voteauction.com debate: "Note to Congress: shape up, or Americans will ship out."
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