CDR: vote trading no freedom of speech

[anonymous at openpgp.net]

Courts assail online
                  vote-swap and auction sites

                  November 7, 2000
                  Web posted at: 11:45 AM EST
                  (1645 GMT)


                  

                  From staff and wire reports

                  Courts on both sides of the nation issued rulings ahead of the
                  Tuesday elections unfavorable to Web sites that encourage
                  voters to swap presidential ballots for political or financial
                  gain. 

                  In Los Angeles, a federal judge refused to stop state officials
                  from cracking down on California-based Web sites that let
                  users in one state trade their vote for president to someone in
                  another state. 

                  The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern
                  California had sought to get a temporary restraining order,
                  arguing Secretary of State Bill Jones actions were an
                  unconstitutional restriction of free speech. 

                  U.S. District Judge Robert Kelleher denied the request in a
                  ruling issued Monday night. 

                  The Web sites seek to have Green Party candidate Ralph
                  Nader supporters cast their votes for Vice President Al Gore
                  in states where the presidential race is expected to be close. 

                  In exchange, Democrats agree to vote for Nader in states
                  where Republican George W. Bush is expected to win. The
                  trades, not sanctioned by the campaigns, could help Gore in
                  swing states and give the Green Party the 5 percent of the
                  national vote it needs to win federal campaign money. 

                  Three sites voluntarily shut down last week after Jones told
                  one it was violating state election laws. Officials in Oregon
                  have issued similar warnings. 

                  Jones hailed the ruling. 

                  "Votes are not a commodity," he said. "In California, it is
                  illegal to buy, sell or trade votes for anything of value --
                  including another vote." 

                  The ACLU said it would appeal, saying such exchanges
                  between voters are protected and that agreeing to a voting
                  strategy is different from offering payment for a vote. 

                  Massachusetts goes after vote auctioneers

                  State officials in Massachusetts did not try to halt two
                  so-called "Nader Trader" Web sites,
                  www.winwincampaign.org and www.nadertrader.com. 

                  The activity on both sites was described as voluntary and
                  involved no contract or exchange of money. 

                  "You cant give away your vote for something of value, but
                  because there is no material gain, its not ... clearly in
                  violation of federal law," said Harvard Law School professor
                  Jonathan Zittrain. 

                  Under federal law, buying and selling votes is punishable by
                  up to five years in prison, $10,000 in fines or both. 

                  However, a Massachusetts judge on Monday temporarily
                  halted an Austrian Web site owner from buying or selling
                  votes in the U.S. presidential election. 

                  Suffolk Superior Court Judge Maria Lopez granted an
                  injunction against "the people operating this Web site and
                  anybody else" who attempted to operate the site or sell their
                  vote. Hans Bernhard of Vienna, Austria, who was identified
                  as owning the site, had no representative at the hearing. 

                  Prosecutors told Lopez that as of Monday morning 1,116 state
                  voters had registered with the site that was offering a total of
                  $13,000 for their votes. 

                  The order meant Massachusetts joined Illinois, California and
                  Nebraska in trying to shut down the Web site. 

                  The sites domain name has changed several times since been
                  subjected to legal challenges in U.S. courts in recent weeks. It
                  began as voteauction.com and last week was
                  vote-auction.com. Following a temporary shutdown, the
                  content of the site was resurrected by using a pure Internet
                  protocol (IP) address (devoid of a domain name) and was still
                  on the Web as of Tuesday morning. 

                  David Kerrigan, the Massachusetts state assistant attorney
                  general, said his office did not know the identities of the
                  voters who registered with the site, but hoped that the operator
                  "will abide by the court order." 

                  Bernhard could not be reached for comment.

http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/11/07/internet.vote/index.html