Posted on 07/04/2008 11:48:56 PM PDT by Schnucki
When politicians claim scads of people earn a living by selling stuff on eBay, Max P. Sanders probably wasn't the sort of person they had in mind.
Sanders, a 19-year-old University of Minnesota student, was charged with a felony Thursday, after placing an auction ad on eBay with the headline, "I'm selling my vote in the Presidential Election."
"The rules are simple, the highest bidder will tell me who to cast my vote for in the election," he wrote. "I will vote for any candidate of any party, as long as they are on the ballot."
He also said that to prove he'd carried out the winning bidder's wishes, "i will photograph myself inside the voting booth with my filled out ballot."
"Good luck!" he wrote. "You're country depends on You!"
He got no bids, and an investigator for the county attorney's office said Sanders told him the whole thing "was a joke." Minnesota Statutes Chapter 211B.13, Subdivision 2, however, calls it "Bribery, Treating, and Soliciting," and it's punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
"We'll approach this with a good degree of common sense and hopefully we can find a punishment that's fitting of the crime," said Pat Diamond, a deputy Hennepin County attorney.
Sanders, of Minneapolis, said, "I actually am going to have no comment on that right now," when a reporter phoned him and informed him of the felony charge. "I'll give you a call back either today or sometime next week."
Although Sanders' auction ended June 4, at least one my-vote-for-money auction is still active on eBay. A seller named "jppatches1234," who lives in Oregon, has an auction ending Monday in which he vows, "I will vote for whom ever you want! I will be sure to be in town in November."
He, too, says he'll send a photo, "of a 'thumbs up,' as if to say 'we did it!' "
In May, voting officials in California notified the Minnesota secretary of state's office that a Minnesotan was auctioning his vote. After officials here looked into it, they forwarded the information to the Hennepin County attorney's office to see if it should be prosecuted.
The seller in the auction was identified as "zepdrummer612" and his location was listed as Edina.
In the description of his auction item, zepdrummer612 wrote:
"I am having trouble deciding who to vote for in the Presidential Election, so I am putting my vote up for sale. I am a legal resident of the state of Minnesota, and I am 19 years old. I am legally allowed to vote, and I have already voted in one previous election." He also told prospective bidders that he would abstain from voting "if that's what they so choose."
Almost $60 billion worth of goods sold in 2007 on eBay, whose slogan is "What ever it is, you can get it on eBay." Last month, presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain said 1.3 million people make a living off eBay and held it up as a model for economic growth.
"EBay is a place where willing sellers meet willing buyers," Diamond said. "It seems to me to be a pretty clear offer to sell his vote."
Bert Black, legal adviser in the Minnesota secretary of state's office, said the eBay vote auction seems to be the new version of an old problem.
"You hear stories about the 19th-century political machines ... where they would actively go out and pay people for voting," he said. "It's been in disrepute for many years."
Hennepin County sheriff's deputies subpoenaed eBay's records for zepdrummer612 and discovered that he allegedly was Sanders. Sanders' credit card was used for the billing, according to an affidavit by Michael Atkinson, an investigator for the county attorney's office.
In the affidavit, Atkinson said that on June 18, he called the phone number zepdrummer612 had provided to eBay.
"A male answered the telephone," he wrote. "I asked, 'Max?' He responded, 'This is Max. Who's this? And do I know you?' "
Atkinson said he identified himself as an investigator with the county attorney's office, prompting Sanders to ask what he was calling about.
"I said, 'The eBay Sell my Vote posting,' " the investigator wrote. "Defendant Max P. Sanders confirmed the vote-soliciting posting described herein by zepdrummer612 was him by stating, 'That was a joke. It's no longer listed.' "
Atkinson said he set up an appointment to meet Sanders that day but that Sanders later called him and canceled, saying he "did not want to talk to me at this time," he wrote.
"He also asked me if he was going to be charged with a crime, and I told him that he could be charged," Atkinson said in the affidavit.
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."
John Aiken, a spokesman for the Minnesota secretary of state's office, said offers to sell votes for money are "very rare" but that officials weren't taking it lightly.
"Fundamentally, it flies in the face of everything that voting is supposed to mean," he said.
I bet the guy didn’t even know.
Another reason to go back to the original voting requirements in the Constitution...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Gee I wonder where he learned bribery? *COUGH* DC
He’ll make a great Senator...
LMAO!
"Fundamentally, it flies in the face of everything that voting is supposed to mean," he said.
This is laughable! Fundamentally, maybe. But realistically, buying and selling votes is politicians main goal in office.
Apparently it’s illegal to sell votes but it’s not illegal to buy them.
then what is to become of the superdelegate who offered to sell his vote?
I just saw another of these the other day, a college-age guy in Georgia offering to sell his vote.
The Dems do this all the time!
I don’t think there is a single senator in DC...who hasn’t sold a vote. In fact....I’d doubt that you could find a single senator who doesn’t sell his vote “weekly”.
I don’t see the issue here. We’ve come to accept the big guys getting paid off routinely....even our most trusted Republican senators...that this lousy effort by a 19-year old college student isn’t even worth mentioning. Then if we stick him in some prison...we end up paying the prison system $20k a year to guard and feed this guy. So just three years of prison life is going to cost you the taxpayer almost $60k in total fees and costs. And don’t forget....he will fight this in court....with public defenders. So the end bill for this game is easily $200k. For $200k, I could buy three good senator votes in DC...so why waste the money on some punk in Minneapolis?
We can all talk of a pure clean America....but thats long gone. We are now fundamentally flawed....and this kid is just another simple reason why things aren’t working right. So lets just pay off the fed DA involved in this case, and help him build up his warchest to run against some Democrat in Arkansas in two years. Thats the sad name to this game.
Correct... Which is why, time and time again, the "briber" goes to jail, while the "bribee" stays in congress (if a dem) or just resigns (if a rep).
A great example is "The Torch," Torrocelli of New Jersey. Eventually, he had to drop his reelection bid, due to the scandal coming out so close to the elections (under coercion by the Clintons), which is why Lautenburg is back in the Senate.
Mark
The big whores don’t like the little whores encroaching on their turf... :)
It is not against Democrat Party rules for super delegates to sell their votes to the highest bidder.
And of course, our politicians buy votes with money from the likes of George Soros, a convicted felon, and that’s legal, too.
So one can see the confusion of this young man that his offer to sell his one measly vote is against the law.
This 19 year old just committed a gaffe, he exposed the truth. We can't have that, bust him (and ignore the politicians behind the curtain).
Although the action is abominable, he offered to sell but didn’t actually sell. For politicians educated in the public school system, that is not the same thing.
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