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Sunday, July 6, 2008
That just isn’t how it’s done, Max
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Max Sanders, a 19-year-old from Minnesota, faces felony charges for going on eBay and offering to sell his vote for president to the highest bidder.
According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press:
Minnesota law bars a voter from soliciting, receiving or accepting any “money, property, or other thing of monetary value” in return for a vote. Anyone who had bid on the vote could’ve been in trouble, too, because the law also prohibits paying for someone’s vote with money, “food, liquor, clothing, entertainment, or other thing of monetary value.”
Young Max just needs a little advice from politicians. You don’t offer to sell anybody your vote; you set up a fund to which your new “friends” can contribute if they wish. If people ply you with liquor or expensive meals and gifts, they aren’t bribing you, they’re “creating a relationship” with you. And if you happen to end up voting the way your “friends” would wish, that’s only because they presented such a convincing case. That way there’s no quid pro quo, and thus no crime.
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