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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.
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.
"I only speak the truth"
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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.
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So does that mean that all the professional lobbiest are going to be arrested for trying to buy votes?
---- aut viam inveniam aut faciam
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.
Saying "I'll probably get modded down for this" in a post is the best way to get it modded up.
then ..... lobbying should be outlawed
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.
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People sell their vote all the time - they sell it for lower taxes, free health care, cheaper oil, etc.
This guy just wants to cut out the middlemen.
... eBay wouldn't have turned him in.
A+++++++++++++ would vote again!
This is absolutely ridiculous. He didn't actually sell his vote, he just put it up for sale. I would argue that its an act of exercising free speech.
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?
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
It's your vote. You should be able to do whatever you want to do with your vote. It should be a crime if you did not use your vote at all.
In the previous elections you had black and white... ummm.. ok - no pun intended here so .... theres nothing to see here - goto 10
10 In this election each candidate will pretty much the same thing - there will be subtleties of course, but it reminds me heavily of the futurama episode where the al gore-ish looking twins were battling for presidency of the world - basically agreeing with what each other said.
You get MUCH more money for American Idol votes...
Think about how much it would mess with the system if everyone in Ohio or Florida decided to swap their vote for the Republicrat or Demopublican candidates for the Libertatian or Green Party candidate...ooooh, it makes all fuzzy inside. But I really doubt there's enough people who are really willing to mess with the system and it make it worthwhile.
You can sell out your nation to big business and crazy religion but one individual can't sell his own vote...
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
And people have died for your country for your right to freedom. Freedom is also your right to handle your vote you want to. Who are you [John Aiken] to decide how people make up on who they vote.
PS, I'm not an USA citizen, hence the "your".
He should have opened his vote to lobbying, asked for a few trips, discount loans, contributions and so on. Nothing illegal there, Congress runs like this all year.
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.
AccountKiller
is this from lobbyists?
We've got an entire political system built-up around corporations and special interest groups persuading and drafting laws that will directly affect citizens...
If we're going to arrest people, can we start with the Microsofts and the General Motors of the world and then if we have any space left in the prisons, we'll work out what to do with the kids?
The road between democracy and tyranny is paved with secrecy in the name of security.
I don't get it, it is 'legal' for Politicians to 'sell' their vote to lobbyists, but a citizen can't do the same.
Regards,
Ryan Pritchard
Fun Extends All Basic Life Expectancies
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.
Since when is a 19 year old, of age to vote, considered a "boy"?
It's a simple matter of complex programming.
my vote elects the representative. representative's vote makes the law. representative's vote carry not only more weight but also much more impact on the society than my vote. and we know how elected officials vote according to their wish, not constituents' wishes, once they get elected.
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I'm sorry, but my grandfather fought in both Korea and Vietnam, received the Purple Heart, and rose to the rank of Command Sargent Majour. He was also a life long Republican and a staunch Conservative. Old School Conservative, not this 'neo-con' crap.
And my grandfather, one of those men who fought and came close to dying for this right to vote, would find this person's arrest a travesty of what he fought for, because he also fought the that man's right to do whatever he wanted with his vote, include selling it.
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man: no entry for woman in the manual.
"Qua!?"
a couple here in Vancouver put their newborn girl up for sale on Craigslist for $10000 a few weeks ago and they were charged. Of course they said it was a joke, but the point is that it is still against the law, just like selling your vote is illegal in the US.
Orbis terrarum est non altus satis
When things like this pop up and the authorities find out, they HAVE to prosecute. If something like this became systematic, we'd have a real problem on our hands.
-- these are only opinions and they might not be mine.
That is totally true. This is thoughtcrime. No actual crime was committed. We do not know if he actually intended to complete the transaction, or simply highlight the fact that lobbyists buy votes all the time.
Bible schmible.
Prostitution was perfectly legal in this country until the damn Christian Women's Temperance league got all uppity.
This is the same group that got prohibition passed, so biblical had nothing to do with their sense of moral righteousness.
Marijuana, by the way, is among the other things they got banned during this time period.
Without reading any of the responses so far ... (i.e. this might end up as an unpopular opinion). But I did RTFA.
The fact that folks fought to the death to defend my right to do something does not mean I must be obligated to do that thing. Maybe I don't share their values? The idea that this leap of logic is being made is a trifle concerning to me.
I agree you shouldn't have the right to sell your vote, corruption lies along that path.
But the prosecutors have made it an emotive issue, rather than focusing on the real issue (corruption); I think they over-reacted there. Five years - that's pretty ridiculous.
...out of his vote, instead of throwing it away on a candidate who is trying to BUY his vote with nothing more than empty promises...
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Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
According to the courts, people can swap their votes so there's a double standard here. If the vote is only supposed to be yours or if it is available as barter for whatever service you see fit, even anothers vote, it is saleable.
http://www.aclu.org/votingrights/gen/32427prs20070806.html
Seems as if it is your right to vote, or not, you should be able to do what you want with it without the courts interference, if it is your wish. OR it should be required that each vote actually matter and be so respected that complete accountability be mandatory for voting so that each and every vote has an absolute guarantee of being counted.
I don't see either being the case as long as paper trails and recounts are questioned.
) Human Kind Vs Human Creation
) It'd be interesting to see how many humans would survive to serve us.
This is the perfect form of public protest for an slashdotter (you don't have to get away from the computer).
Everybody on the US please! put your vote on sell on ebay, report here (and in wikileaks?) for coordination. When the police come to arrest you and you are in court don't simply say it is a joke, say it is an act of protest at the current election system, point to the people doing the same here.
A judge can ignore the rights of a kid but not a massive protest from the human wave known as /.!
But... the future refused to change.
It's not that he's selling his vote, it's that as an individual citizen's electoral vote it's pretty much worthless. Now, if it were worth something, such as what lobbyists and industry can offer politicians, instead of being arrested he's be rewarded with, say, being allowed to deduct cost of getting his vote sold from his taxes as a business expense.
Real people can't compete with the artificial people known as corporations because the corporations can mount a tough defense. To do so they'll call on the watch dogs they've already purchased in the form of the existing politicians and laws.
That said "I was only kidding" is a terrible defense that nobody should be expected to believe. If one is to attempt this, it is best done in the form of verifiable protected speech: parody. That requires being able to site specific things one is parodying (web sites, TV ads, etc.).
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
Hmm, I was under the impression that the invention happened in France, but due to a cock-up by Management they didn't implement it right and it broke down. The Americans didn't respect the French prior art, and reimplemented it there, but with a different set of cock-ups (in particular the "Electoral College" - One Vote One Value eh?)
If people can't sell their votes how do the politicians expect to be able to buy them? Surely this is restraint of trade, hence unethical.
It is illegal to sell your vote, but not illegal to buy your vote.
I Heart Sorting Networks
Ugh... this is why District Attorneys drive me crazy (and, as a Public Defender, I deal with them regularly). Using an 1893 law to prosecute a college student... "Fundamentally," as they say, that makes them a bunch of a-holes! If you ever wanted to deal with a group of people who think in binary (on/off, black/white, etc.), work with DAs on a regular basis. Absolutely, no sense of humor...
With a law that old, however, I think it could at the very least be challenged on 1st Amendment grounds. Afterall, isn't "selling" your vote just a political statement as to the complete lack of difference your vote makes?
I'm holding a contest to decide which candidate I want to vote for. I'm broke, so the economy is important to me. Whoever is able to raise the most money to give to me will obviously be the one best suited to make the economy work in my favor & I will naturally want to vote for them.
I can't help but wonder what anyone could say if it was worded like that, lobbyists seem to be getting away with officials putting it like that.
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
Then why do we accept the idea of lobbyists? Are they not as corrupt as the "4 families in Iceland"?
The politicians do not listen to the will of the people, in exception when a side offers lots of handouts. If I recall correctly, the founders said that poor people should not vote because they will vote for whomever gives the biggest handout, which is what we're seeing. After all, the inequity of poverty in the USA indicates that there's more poor than rich, so it'd be the "2 wolves and 1 sheep deciding what to have for supper".
Perhaps Heinlein's idea in Starship Troopers where one can vote after serving in the military is the proper choice. It'd be a "poverty check", intelligence test, and understanding our country all wrapped in one.
then arrest everyone in Congress that took money from lobbyists in order to vote for or against certain bills in Congress. Don't just arrest the little people but the big ones as well.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
he just wasn't using it.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
I WILL be calling this office and voicing my opinion.
I try to look ahead...But it's bad enough that Americans have to figure out a way to get the scumbags out of office but how the hell are we to when we have total idiots like these prosecutors in places of authority.
Mr. Aiken, take off your phony patriot pants and start putting my tax dollars to real work by going after the all-too-well-known criminal politicians. Hell no wonder this kid wants to sell his vote. That's the example he knows!
PM
Yeah, good call.
I was thinking: you only see this kind of frantic throwing-the-book-at-him, in this case well before any crime was actually consummated, if the person is drawing our attention to a dangerous idea. The idea, in this case, might be any of:
Our current social pattern has some spots which, if they became widely known, would cause a collapse. You can tell you've found one when people jump your case just for broaching the subject.
FATMOUSE + YOU = FATMOUSE