________________________________________________________________________________ [The guys at voteauction.com were smart enough to move it offshore, so there's not a whole lot that the spoilsports in Chicago can do. They could, I suppose, try to get an injunction in federal court telling Network Solutions to delete the domain name from its registry database. (Anyone know if this has ever been tried successfully? I've often wondered why we haven't heard of this tactic.) Still, participants could just use the IP address or the voteauction.ai or whatnot address, so it may not be worth it. --Declan] ******** Background on voteauction.com and controversy over it: http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=00/09/29/0524228 If you needed further proof that Americans are disgusted with politics, just check out Voteauction.com, which allows people to auction off their votes to the highest bidder. According to a Wired News article, more than 6,000 people have already signed on, eager to profit off of their democratic rights. And how much are our fellow countrymen's voices going for? Looks like it’s in the $10 to $20 dollar range, folks. Sad? Perhaps, but not all that new. James Baumgartner, a grad student at Rensellaer Polytechnic Institute argues that votes have been on the market since 1757 when George Washington bought drinks for all the voters in his district. Officially, the practice of selling votes is illegal, and there’s at least one group that’s a little miffed the site’s still running. "This website is an INSULT to every American who has ever fought to protect our freedom or for the right to vote in America!" raged Deborah Phillips, president of the Voting Integrity Project. The site operators got around America’s laws by, well, leaving America. Note to Congress: shape up, or Americans will ship out. ******** http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-2934217.html Chicago tries to close vote Web site By The Associated Press Special to CNET News.com October 4, 2000, 9:25 p.m. PT CHICAGO--Mindful of the city's history as a place where elections have been bought, Chicago officials are trying to shut down a Web site that offers votes to the highest bidder. The Board of Elections sent letters yesterday to federal and state prosecutors, saying that Voteauction.com should be shut down. "In Chicago we react strongly and quickly to this type of activity--whether it's tongue-in-cheek or not--because we need to guard our reputation here that this is a place where voting activity is legal and aboveboard and beyond reproach," board chairman Langdon Neal said. Voteauction provides "a forum for campaign contributors and voters to come together in a free market exchange," according to the site. Voteauction says it will collect absentee ballots from voters, verify them, and then sell them to the highest bidder, who can "choose who the group will vote for en masse." Sellers then receive money depending on how much is bid. So far, the site boasts that 8,313 voters nationwide have signed up--380 in Illinois. The price tag thus far in Illinois, according to the Web site, is $15.79 a vote, or $6,000 for the state. California, the national prize because of its 54 Electoral College votes, has a high bid of $22,000 offered to make the choice for 1,230 voters. The Web site notes that it is not valid in New York after that state questioned its legality. Neal said there is no indication any money or ballots have changed hands. Nor, he said, is there any way to verify how many voters have signed up or even contacted the Web site. But, he said, "we don't think it can work." The U.S. attorneys' office has forwarded the board's letter to the Justice Department, and the state's attorney's office would only say it received the letter. A New York graduate student, James Baumgartner, launched the site this summer and said it wasn't really meant to work at the time. "It was more to make a point that the campaign financing system operates as a business," he said. Neal said while others may think the site is funny, "To us it is not, particularly because of the history of Chicago." Stopping it, though, may be tough. The site has been sold to a Vienna businessman, Hans Bernhard, who, Baumgartner said, is "in Austria and the server is in Bulgaria, so he thinks he's outside the jurisdiction" of any American board of elections. /* see also: voteauction.com http://rolux.org/archive/archive.php3?message=796 everyone is making money off elections except the voters http://rolux.org/archive/archive.php3?message=791 */ ________________________________________________________________________________ no copyright 2000 rolux.org - no commercial use without permission. is a moderated mailing list for the advancement of minor criticism. post to the list: mailto:inbox@rolux.org. more information: mailto:minordomo@rolux.org, no subject line, message body: info rolux. further questions: mailto:rolux-owner@rolux.org. home: http://rolux.org/lists - archive: http://rolux.org/archive