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| Technology |
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Website to Make It Possible to Sell Your Vote
Online
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AUGUST 22ND, 2000
Choosing a president is an
American tradtion, but this November, you may be able to sell
your vote by clicking on Voteauction.com.
"We're
allowing people to register with Voteauction.com and they're
placed into voting blocks by state and then each block is sold
to the highest bidder," said Voteauction.com founder James
Baumgartner. "They'll be voting by absentee ballot. They fill
out everything except for president, then the person or
organization that wins the auction will say I want such and
such group to vote for this person."
The voters will
then fill in the bidder's choice for president and send the
ballot to Voteauctoin.com for verification.
Participating voters get a portion of the proceeds
from the sale of their vote. Baumgartner wouldn't say how much
a vote goes for these days.
He says he's heard from
interested parties on both sides of the auction, but he
wouldn't divulge their names either.
Go out and tell
someone about this website and almost always the first
response will be "that can't be legal!" Here in New York,
Voteauction.com and participating voters could end up in some
trouble.
"There are statutes on the books that
prohibit you from even offering to sell your vote," said Tom
Wilkey from the New York State Board of Elections. There are
other statutes where it is even a violation to pay for that
consideration."
Just last week, auction site eBay put
the kabosh on six people who tried to sell their votes.
Selling votes violates state and federal law.
Still,
Voteauction.com insists it's following a precedent set by the
highest court in the land.
"In 1976 there was a
Supreme Court decision, Buckley vs. Valeo, that equated
campaign contributions with free speech," said Baumgarten.
"The Internet is the largest world forum for free speech right
now. So we're combining those two and allowing the campaign
contributions to go directly to the voters."
"It's a
verified endorsement," he continued. "Voteauction.com, like a
labor union or political action group, will endorse this
candidate for each state that the winning bidders want the
people to vote on, and I'm just verifying they're voting for
the endorsed candidate."
"Spending money to get ideas
out and spending money to support candidates have
constitutional protection under the First Ammendment, but
bribing politicians to act or buying and selling votes have
never been held to have First Ammendment protection and it's
inconceivable that it would be or ought to be," says NYU Law
professor Richard Pildes.
Voteauction.com can't be
found on the web now. Baumgartner says it will officially
launch in about two weeks, when a lawyer finishes hammering
out the final details.
- Adam Balkin
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