eBay'er Arrested For Attempting To Sell His Vote

The Associated Press reports that Max P. Sanders, 19, is charged with a felony for attempting to auction off his vote on eBay for the upcoming presidential election. From the article: '"Fundamentally, we believe it is wrong to sell your vote," said John Aiken, a spokesman for the office. "There are people that have died for this country for our right to vote, and to take something that lightly, to say, 'I can be bought... It's a real shame"' Yes, that is a terrible shame, isn't it. Perhaps we should arrest, prosecute, and imprison everyone who sells their vote. The boy says it was all a joke, but prosecutors aren't laughing. Max faces up to 5 years in prison and $10,000 in fines if he is convicted.

Comments

You can't transfer a 'vote'

[Joe the Lesser]

The elections are anonymous.

I could sell my vote for a million dollars, and still vote however I liked, and you would be none the wiser.

Re:You can't transfer a 'vote'

[interstellar_donkey]

I would sell my vote, but Diebold already sold it for me.

I wouldn't have backed down.

[plasmacutter]

I'd have taken advantage of it, called in the media, and explained to them just how common "selling your vote" is in congress, and how there is nobody who truly represents "we the people", especially that portion of us below 30.

Re:I wouldn't have backed down.

[plasmacutter]

Selling a vote for a certain law or policy in congress is entirely different then selling a vote for an election.

You're right. One is 1/350 odd millionth of the popular vote, the other has direct, harmful impact on the public.

And you have no proof that congress men actually sold their votes. People donate to candidates who support issues they care about. It is entirely possible that the vote was completely separate from the campaign donations.

In the words of every valley girl "oh please". Please do sit and spin some more on this.

I could go on about problems with your concept of "we the people" with your notion of that in relation to the population under thirty and the decline of the education system but I will save that for another time.

Ah yes, let's turn around and bash the citizenry when they engage in civil disobedience and stay home because they know nobody gives a damn.

That is really funny

[Beached]

So does that mean that all the professional lobbiest are going to be arrested for trying to buy votes?

Excessive?

[linuxpyro]

I can see how this sort of thing would be illegal, but at the same time it's not as if he's really hurting anyone or causing a huge halt to progress. It just seems like it would be a waste throw him in prison for five years over something like this.

Re:Excessive?

[Jeff321]

That's the maximum. I'd be surprised if he does any jail time at all. The thing that sucks is having a felony on your record, and explaining your stupidity when asked about it for the rest of your life.

Re:Excessive?

[plasmacutter]

What better way to silence critics of your anti-drug policy than slapping everyone who smokes marijuana with a felony charge?

What better way to silence critics of your anti-theft policy than slapping everyone who steals with a felony charge?

What better way to silence critics of your anti-murder policy than slapping everyone who murders with a felony charge?

What better way to silence critics of your anti-speeding policy than slapping everyone who speeds with a felony charge?

What better way to silence critics of your anti-x policy than slapping everyone who x-es with a felony charge?

This isn't some conspiracy to disenfranchise *snip*

i'm sorry but it is. There is nothing inherently immoral about doing marijuana vs tobacco, there is nothing inherently immoral about speeding, and i'm sorry you can't compare victimless crimes like drugs and speeding to the active denial of a person's fundamental right to live. This is nothing more than extremist "law = morality" frothing.

Can any reader come up with a "common everyday activity" which just happens to be a felony? I can't,

filesharing - the net act

liquor sales - the volstead act

marijuana/lsd use - the nixon drug laws (i'm so sorry to tell you, but, even though I don't do this personally, it is an everyday activity for millions, and there is no proven addictive properties to either. people who use these drugs are not "Evil")

and I'm just fine with disenfranchising cokeheads.

Ah, so your subjective morality and insistence you have the authority to make the decisions for others has more merit than people like me, who think coke heads should have a right to buy coke if they want to. It's their body.

Of course, simply slap a felony on any of these charges and suddenly they no longer have a voice. Fascists like you have silenced them. I'm sorry but there is no more accurate term to someone who believes they should be able to gag anyone who doesn't agree with them.

Re:Excessive?

[hkmarks]

Why shouldn't someone who had a 5 year felony conviction 30 years ago, served their time, reformed, got a job, and never did anything illegal ever again... never have the right to vote again?

Hypothetically speaking, what if the felony was committed in protest against an unjust law or corrupt political system? What if the felony was only a felony because corrupt politicians signed it to law? Shouldn't participation in the political process be an inviolable right, on par with freedom of speech or assembly?

hmmm

[jmd]

then ..... lobbying should be outlawed

Cue congressman/senator examples in 3, 2, 1

[unity100]

Go !

so, its ok if sale of a vote is made under other names, like 'donations', or 'lobbying', or 'support', but its not ok if it is named directly for what it is.

you gotta love the hypocrisy that is reigning on this world.

Arrested?

[clarkkent09]

Hmm, there is a state law against selling your vote? I'd love to see that challenged all the way to the supreme court. I very much doubt it would hold up. Aren't we all selling our votes in a sense, by giving them to a candidate who promises us something we wish to happen. If I vote for Obama because I would benefit from his health care plan, am I not exchanging my vote for something that is valuable to me?

How ironic

[CdBee]

You can sell out your nation to big business and crazy religion but one individual can't sell his own vote...

Sounds more like political theatre than a crime.

[Vellmont]

This sounds like a play by the Secretary of State to win some political points than anything else. Consider the following:

1. No money changed hands.
2. No bids were actually placed.
3. The Secretary of State is an elected official.
4. The SoS office is playing this up big with statements about VFWs and trivializing votes like they caught some big criminal here.
5. The ebayer is some dumb college kid who's either making a statement, or a dumb joke, or both.

As far as the "people died to preserve your right to vote", I'd say those people also died to protect peoples rights of expression. This dumb stunt sounds a lot more like expression than an honest attempt at vote selling and profiteering.

Re:Free speech? Thought police?

[zenyu]

I think that the individual has the right to decide whether it's more important for him to gain a few dollars versus influencing which party wins.

Sometimes individual rights collide with the collective interest. When you choose to live in a country with a government, you give up some individual rights -- in exchange you get safety for your person. The old Icelandic Republic allowed the selling and buying of votes; within a few hundred years four families had cornered the market and civil war was the inevitable result. New democracies like the US don't allow the buying and selling of votes for a good reason. As a civilization, we learn from the mistakes of the past and try to avoid repeating them.