« News Scan | Main | SCOTUS Conference »

Vote Swapping

Activities which are legal when freely given but criminal when purchased have been much in the news in last couple of days. Another of these is voting. In 2000, there was a scheme set up where people who really wanted to vote for Ralph Nader but lived in a state where it might matter could swap their votes with Gore voters in essentially uncontested states. Bill Jones, who was then California Secretary of State, threatened criminal prosecution. In August, a Ninth Circuit panel held that Jones had violated the First Amendment rights of the swappers and their broker. Today, the court denied rehearing en banc, Judges Kleinfeld, O'Scannlain, and Bea dissenting.

Post a comment

If you return to this page after signing in, click here for instructions.

This is a place for informed discussion of issues related to criminal law and criminal justice policy. Persons who wish to engage in ad hominem attacks, name-calling, profanity, flame wars, and general rudeness are cordially invited to do so somewhere else. For this reason, and to prevent comment spam, commenters are required to register with TypeKey, and individual comments will have to be approved before they are published for your first few comments.