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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.
You get MUCH more money for American Idol votes...
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 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.
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!?"
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.
...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...
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 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?
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.
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.
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