LLast week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk offered a $47 fee to people who referred registered voters in swing states to sign a petition supporting free speech and gun rights. The billionaire's political action group is using a petition to gather contact information as a last-ditch push to support Donald Trump's campaign.
In response to the offer, the card game company Cards Against Humanity announced that it would pay up to $100 for each defaulter. Vote in 2020, apologizing for it, making a plan to get out the vote and publicly posting the phrase “Donald Trump is a human toilet.” People who live in swing states can make more money.
The card game company told the New York Times that as of Wednesday afternoon, more than 1,150 people had been paid through the program.
Vote buying is illegal under US law, but Cards Against Humanity's site says it is “exploiting a legal loophole to pay America's non-blue-leaning voters”.
The Guardian spoke to Richard Hassan, a professor specializing in electoral law and director of the Program on Defending Democracies at the UCLA School of Law. Legitimate – If not entitled to these privileges.
I would like to understand from you about where the line is. What is legal and what is not? What do we see about Donald Trump buying $100 worth of groceries for someone at the store, or Elon Musk doing this $47 thing, or Cards against humanity's reaction to that? How much of this is legal and how much is not?
It's all legal. Cards Against Humanity comes closest, but has a pretty bright streak. You cannot pay someone to register to vote, to vote a certain way in a federal election. Elon Musk doesn't pay anyone to vote. He pays the lead. I mean, if he's actually going to get people to vote, that's a different question.
I have to wonder if anyone is going to get a check at the end of the day from that or not.
This is a weird question and it might be a scam. But if you're talking about buying votes, the idea that you're paying someone, people who sign a petition to indicate that they're conservative by signing a Second Amendment petition, means not voting or paying someone. Register to vote.
If it was a referendum vote, I think it would be different.
This is not an official document. This is paying someone to sign an initiative, a petition to qualify something for the ballot. This is very different from signing a personal petition.
Let's say that someone is offering something to people who are chasing people to sign this petition. Like: “Hey, Elon is going to pay me $47. I will give you $15 to sign the petition.”
It is not a vote.
So, what you're saying is that Elon Musk could theoretically pay someone directly to sign a petition.
Of course.
What about cards against humanity? Is the program legal?
It comes pretty close, because all you have to do to get the money is you have to make a plan to vote, which includes figuring out how to register to vote or figuring out how and where you're going to register to vote. You will vote, won't you?
Donald Trump was at a grocery store a few weeks ago and bought all the groceries…
Not near the line. Not even in the neighborhood. He never paid anyone to vote or register to vote.
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Some conservatives compare Biden's push for student loan relief to vote buying: “Oh, he's buying votes from college students.” Is that vote buying?
So it's not about buying votes because what you're doing is making policy proposals that benefit people financially. Donald Trump says he wants to give tax cuts to people who work for tips so they don't get taxed. There is a Supreme Court case about how vote-buying does not work. Part of the First Amendment is making general promises about what you're going to do in office, not specific promises that you're going to pay certain people to vote a certain way.
Are there real, meaningful cases of vote buying in the United States?
Of course, yes. People are paid to vote. They have received refunds on absentee ballots. I wrote about a case in the 1990s where candidates running for a county office set up tables at opposite ends of the courthouse steps and paid people to vote. This is rare. Today everyone sees fraud, so what is happening outside is not like that.
Briefly explain why buying and selling votes is a bad idea?
The reason we prohibit the buying and selling of votes is that we do not want people to use their voting rights in a purely transactional way. There are certain things we don't allow you to sell. We do not allow the sale of body parts. We believe that there are some things that are inseparable and cannot be sold. And the idea of selling votes is to make people think about voting in a more materialistic and selfish way than they might otherwise. You wouldn't want a politician to vote for or against a law based on taking bribes, getting personal benefits, rather than voting for the public good.
The philosophical component of it is interesting to me, in part, because of all the ways, once you get down to it, that philosophy is practically violated. In 2020, they spent half a billion dollars on elections to get out the vote, on rallies, ads and everything else. was 5 m Here are the votes. So about $100 was spent per vote to influence the election. By law, it is perfectly acceptable for candidates to spend $100 per person on anything other than paying a $100 bill per person.
Yes, that's the difference between convincing someone and having the resources to do it – how they should vote, pay directly, and not consider what's best for the nation or their community, but rather, what goes into their pockets.
I can imagine Joe Voter looking at all that and being very cynical about things at this point.
Of course. But you know, you can take it to the other extreme. Ask Why Georgia Bans Giving Water to Someone Waiting in Line to Vote? You know, it's considered potential vote-buying, like someone standing in line for hours to vote just to get a free bottle of water.
