Auction Gives New Meaning To 'Check Here' Wednesday, August 30, 2000   BY DAN HARRIE THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE     Challenging the notion that the right to vote is priceless, a new Internet site has sprung up to exchange money for votes.     Voteauction.com allows voters to register their votes for sale to the highest bidder -- presumably politicians or special interests looking for the best bang for their campaign-contribution buck. Votes are grouped by state to be sold in blocs for the presidential election.     The Web site carries the slogan: "Bringing capitalism and democracy closer together."     Created by 26-year-old graduate student James Baumgartner of New York, the site was shut down temporarily last week amid a flurry of news stories about Department of Justice scrutiny of the scheme, along with similar attempted auctions on eBay. But voteauction.com already has reopened under Austrian ownership. WEB LINKS: 2000 Vote: http://www.2000vote.com/ CSPAN Campaign 2000: www.c-span.org/campaign2000 Select Smart's Candidate Selector: www.selectsmart.com/ PRESIDENT Republican Candidate Site: George W. Bush: http://www.georgewbush.com/ Democratic Candidate Site: Al Gore: http://www.algore2000.com/ Reform Party Candidate: Pat Buchanan: www.buchananreform .com     Asked if the scheme is a lampoon of the current campaign finance system, Baumgartner told The Salt Lake Tribune his site is "very serious." But he allowed that his purpose is a combination of commentary and profit.     Putting votes on the auction block is "the next logical extension" of money-driven elections, he said, adding voters should have the opportunity to be "profiting from an emerging industry -- the American election industry."     "It puts the power back in the voters' hands," Baumgartner said. He even suggested that a financial incentive would motivate apathetic Americans used to sitting out elections to participate in the democratic process.     Utahns don't appear much interested in selling their democratic franchise -- at least not so far.     As of Tuesday, only two residents (whose identities were withheld) had put their votes up for bid, and no offers had been submitted. That compared with 39 California votes registered for sale and 18 from Texas. The best price offered was $100 for a single Illinois vote.     "I'm hoping, with hyperbole, he is making fun of" the role of money in politics, said retired University of Utah political scientist J.D. Williams. "In that case, I applaud the ruse or whatever it is. . . . Probably the central evil in the American political system is money."     But if Baumgartner is serious about trying to tap into a new money-making scheme, "then I'm ashamed," said Williams, denouncing the concept as bribery. He said it begs the question of what a vote is worth.     Based on campaign spending history, Utah politicians over the years have had widely different opinions on the subject.     The highest price ever paid in a major race probably was the $47 per vote laid out by steel magnate Joe Cannon in his 1992 U.S. Senate race.     Cannon invested $6 million in personal funds only to finish second in the Republican primary with 128,125 votes.     Enid Greene in her famously expensive -- and illegally financed -- 1994 House campaign spent about $22 per vote. Merrill Cook paid an even higher premium that year, about $26 per vote, to finish in third place.     Of course, the money did not go to voters but to glitzy television ads, high-priced consultants and even hot-air balloons.     Voteauction.com argues that cash should go directly to voters.     Utahn Janet Jenson agrees.     "This is a cynical thing but it is really kind of realistic," said Jenson, who used to make her living as a Washington lobbyist and, later, a Capitol Hill staffer. "You'd have to be naive to believe that most members of Congress are not for sale."     "It's very clever," said Jenson, "because it just avoids the middleman."                 © Copyright 2000, The Salt Lake Tribune All material found on Utah OnLine is copyrighted The Salt Lake Tribune and associated news services. No material may be reproduced or reused without explicit permission from The Salt Lake Tribune.