October 19,
2000, 1:54 PM PDT
Voteauction to Lose
Domain Name
After a court
defeat in Illinois, the site that enables people to sell their
presidential votes faces a shutdown.
By Ronna
Abramson
Illinois became the latest state
to be excluded from Voteauction.com, a Web site that accepts bids
for presidential votes, and the auction's days appear numbered,
because its domain name registrar is pulling the plug on the URL.
Cook County Circuit Judge Michael J. Murphy on Wednesday approved
a preliminary injunction against Voteauction, ordering it to shut
down or remove illegal content. The Chicago Board of Election
Commissioners filed the order against the site, charging that it
violates state and federal laws that forbid voters to sell votes.
The site's owner, based in Europe, could not be reached for
comment. Voteauction.com suspended Illinois voting registration on
the site Thursday. It also cut off registration to New York voters
after officials there threatened legal action.
Domain Bank, an accredited domain name registrar in Bethlehem,
Pa., that registered the site, has taken steps to place the domain
name on hold, in response to a request from the California secretary
of state. The address can no longer be accessed on the East Coast
and should disappear completely from the Net in the next couple of
days, a Domain Bank spokesman said.
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