US rules vote swapping legal

[mawilson 2,133]

A US court has ruled that websites set up to allow people to swap their votes are

legal and protected by the Constitution.

Back in the heady days of 2000, prior to the election of George W Bush, a couple

of websites were set up to allow supporters of independent candidate Ralph Nader

and of Democrat candidate Al Gore to trade their votes in order to maximise the

anti-Republican vote.

The websites were quickly closed before the election on grounds that they were

trading, or buying, votes. But the 9th US Court of Appeals said the decision to

shut the sites, after legal threats from the state of California, was a violation of

the First Amendment because the sites were not seeking to buy or sell votes.

The two main sites were voteswap2000.com (now closed) and Votexchange2000.com.

The modern version of tactical voting, promoted in the UK by the Lib Dems, could

be resurrected for Brown's next election.

Gore infamously lost Florida by some 500 votes - if the site had still been running

maybe the result would have been different.

Although California was the first to act against the websites other states took the

opposite view - this latest decision may make things clearer for the next US election.

A Liberal Democrat Party Spokesperson told the Reg: "Unfortunately, Britain has an

unfair voting system where many people feel they have to resort to methods such

as this to make their voices heard. However, we would prefer it if everyone who

supports the Liberal Democrats votes for the Liberal Democrats."

More from Wired here.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

What do they mean by swapping? I thought once you cast your ballot, there's no going back and changing your vote, no?

[mawilson 2,133]

What do they mean by swapping? I thought once you cast your ballot, there's no going back and changing your vote, no?

Basically, the idea of vote swapping is to enable third-party supporters in a swing state

such as Florida or Ohio to agree to be paired with major-party supporters in a "safe state"

(such as Massachusetts or Texas), whereby the swing-state voters would promise to vote

for the major-party candidate and, in exchange, the safe-state voters would promise to

vote for the third-party candidate. The point of the swaps, at least when agreed to by

Nader and Gore supporters, was to improve Gore’s odds of winning the Democratic-

pledged electors in the swing state without reducing Nader’s share of the national popular

vote (which needed to exceed five percent in order to qualify his party for federal funding

in future elections).

[one...two...tree 2,762]

What do they mean by swapping? I thought once you cast your ballot, there's no going back and changing your vote, no?

Basically, the idea of vote swapping is to enable third-party supporters in a swing state

such as Florida or Ohio to agree to be paired with major-party supporters in a "safe state"

(such as Massachusetts or Texas), whereby the swing-state voters would promise to vote

for the major-party candidate and, in exchange, the safe-state voters would promise to

vote for the third-party candidate. The point of the swaps, at least when agreed to by

Nader and Gore supporters, was to improve Gore’s odds of winning the Democratic-

pledged electors in the swing state without reducing Nader’s share of the national popular

vote (which needed to exceed five percent in order to qualify his party for federal funding

in future elections).

Ah, ok.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

I'll sell mine to the highest bidder.

[mawilson 2,133]

I'll sell mine to the highest bidder.

LOL