-Caveat Lector- For those of you familiar with Sarkar's Law of Social Cycles, the article below will come as no surprise. Nurev ========================================== **AT LAST**HONESTY IN AMERICAN POLITICS** Thousands Sign Up to Sell Votes by Mark K. Anderson 3:00 a.m. Sep. 22, 2000 PDT According to detective novels and TV shows, criminals are those who perform illegal actions clandestinely. But some real-world scofflaws get more mileage out of the adage, "If you've got it, flaunt it." Recently, the Austrian owner of Voteauction.com flaunted it. Boasting of the more than 6,000 Americans who have signed up to auction off their presidential votes to the highest bidder -- illegal activity under the laws of every state in the union -- Voteauction is now detailing its plans to begin an outreach campaign. Using its "Voter Empowerment Kits" and "Action Teams," the company claims in a press release that it can reach more potential customers and facilitate voter fraud without the intervention of an online middleman. Such activity leaves Deborah Phillips of the Voting Integrity Project flummoxed. Phillips has been observing the ups and downs of the blatantly felonious site since August, when Wired News first reported on this curious conglomeration of satire, lawlessness and voracious capitalism. "Why isn't the Justice Department getting involved?" she said. "Why hasn't there been any comment from the White House? Why hasn't Congress held any hearings?" One federal election official said that the government's apparent hesitation in taking on Voteauction may be for three reasons: a lack of widespread knowledge about the site; uncertainty over the worth of launching an investigation; and uncertainty over jurisdiction. On the last point, the question over pursuing this peculiar breed of overseas-instigated voter fraud -- whether such work would fall on the plate of the Department of Justice, boards of election (either in cities or at the state level) or state attorneys general offices -- is unclear. "I suspect that if this began to appear to be a problem on a large enough scale, though, you'd see action, and it'd come quickly," the election official said. According to Hans Bernhard, the Austrian businessman who bought Voteauction from James Baumgartner, a New York graduate student who developed the site, American reaction against his investment has already begun. In addition to the hate emails he receives for running an offshore enterprise that facilitates American felonies, Berhard reports that the site has also been the recipient of numerous hacks and electronic attacks. "We do understand that there is a certain interest on the part of certain services of the U.S. government who most probably are interested in this data," Bernhard said of Voteauction's list of vote sellers and buyers. "Our job is to protect this data. We don't want this data to be public." According to James Baumgartner, the MFA student who first conceived of the site as a commentary on wholesale corruption in American politics, a few facts can be divulged about the $75,000 in bids so far and the 6,000 participants. Vote-sellers on the whole tend to be in their twenties, male and with at least some college education -- including a lot of college students, he said. Vote buyers, on the other hand, tend to be in their forties, affluent and Republican. Almost all of the bids for votes -- broken down by state -- have come from individuals seeking to increase the number of votes for their favorite candidates. Only three companies, in the "$200,000 (to) million sales range," Baumgartner said, have yet placed any bids for Voteauction votes. The profile of both sides of the Internet auction does jibe with the history of vote-buying in America, said Larry J. Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist and author of the 1996 book Dirty Little Secrets: The Persistence of Corruption in American Politics. Especially telling is the fact that the payoff-per-vote, as tallied on the site, is settling into the $10-$20 range -- the amount of cash an individual vote tends to command in other, non-Internet-based schemes. "It always seems to be about $20," Sabato said. "That must be the going rate. And when you think about it, it makes sense. Because 10 bucks is not what it used to be. With 20 bucks you can get a pretty good meal, if you know where to go. And I think that's how some people conceive of it. Their vote may be worth a meal. It's sad, but that may be true." Sabato and co-author Glenn R. Simpson of The Wall Street Journal write in Secrets: "Contrary to the belief of some that voter fraud is a thing of the past existing today only in isolated packets, if at all, the evidence ... strongly suggests a persistent pattern of criminal fraud that is well organized and a continuing part of the political culture in some areas. "The fact that fraud is generally not recognized as a serious problem by press, public and law enforcement creates the perfect environment for it to flourish." The Voteauction experience certainly leaves little room to doubt that. As Baumgartner observed, Voteauction "Action Teams" now plan to spread their message -- along with the "Empowerment Kits" containing vote-selling bumper stickers, flyers and handbills -- at such prominent venues as the Oct. 3 presidential debate at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. The Voting Integrity Project's Phillips sees such over-the-top expressions as commentary in itself. Noting that it appeals to a younger, more cynical generation, she does wonder about the mixed message the "Action Teams" spread. "They see chaos as a legitimate political expression," she said. "If that is indeed what this game is all about, then it's a different animal. Then they may be doing America a tremendous favor -- if they succeed in awakening the country to making the changes in election law that need to be made. But it could also go in just the opposite direction." For one, she said, Voteauction's logistics leave her highly suspicious. "You've got a Bulgarian ISP," she said. "Now Bulgaria is not necessarily the friendliest nation to the U.S. Then you've got an Austrian businessman, and there are extreme right-wing elements there. To me, it's an unusual congruence." Sabato, who himself exposed many modern-day examples of vote fraud in Secrets, found the case of Voteauction alternately dispiriting and comical -- if only in a dark and bitter way. "That's really incredible," he said, stifling a laugh. "I'm glad it's only 6,000 people. Of course, it's not very well known. Once it becomes better known, I wouldn't be surprised to see that number grow substantially. "It is an accurate commentary to some degree on the current shape of American politics. Everybody's making money except for the voters. So this way the voters make money too," he said. "But (vote-sellers) have forgotten the literally millions of people in our history who have given their lives to preserve the vote. They've forgotten the civil rights marchers who gave their lives to get the vote, all the women's suffrage workers who gave large portions of their lives to get the vote for women. It's sad in my book." Although Phillips said some editors and journalists around the country have neglected to cover the Voteauction story so far because they fear it's a prank or a particularly dastardly piece of "guerrilla marketing," it is indeed for real. "It's another aspect of the Internet that was completely unpredicted and still is," Sabato said. "I just don't think hardly anybody out there knows this is there or would believe that it's there. And that's what the Internet can do. "There are light forces and dark forces produced by the Internet -- this great new technology that has such potential for good and for ill. Well, here's an example of ill." $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$OHPLEASE!!!!!!$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ ============================ -- CUT OUT THE MIDDLEMEN -- JUST VOTE FOR A CORPORATION ============================ <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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