Search  About Salon  Table Talk  Newsletters  Advertise in Salon  Investor Relations

Salon.com

[Arts & Entertainment][ Books ][ Business ][ Comics ][ Health & Body ][ Mothers Who Think ][ News ][ People ][ Politics ][ Sex ][ Technology ]

Article Finder
Technology Log


 


Democracy for sale
Bid for the vote of one U.S. citizen, now on eBay!

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Katharine Mieszkowski

Aug. 17, 2000 | Looking to stretch your soft money contributions this election season? Are you short a few hundred grand from your ultimate ambition of buying off your very own candidate? Cash-poor campaign contributors, may I redirect your wallets to a new way to exchange dinero for political influence -- buying a single vote at auction. That's right. Right now on eBay you can place your bid for the "Vote of one U.S. Citizen," Item # 410721373.

Currently bidding at $10,100.00, this little nugget of the 2000 election is offered by a registered voter of the great state of Maryland. The seller, identified only by the suitable pseudonym "apragmatic," offers not just his or her vote in the presidential election, but in "all other elections in my district, by name or by party" on the November 2000 ballot. Listed for auction just this Tuesday, already 20 bids have been made. Don't delay. Only eight more days to raise your virtual paddle to extend your political influence. This innovative auction ends Aug. 25 at 2:23 p.m. and 20 seconds PDT.




Print story


E-mail story


Backflip This Story  Backflip this story to find it again


Buying a single vote may seem like a small gesture, but if you can't afford to shell out for your own political office or candidate, at least this way you can purchase a bit more influence into who represents you, and the people of Maryland. And isn't it every citizen's right to use their vote as they see fit -- even if that means selling it off to the highest bidder? As the description of the vote for sale enthuses: "Why should the American Citizen be left out? Congressmen and Senators regularly sell THEIR votes to the highest bidder. Democracy for sale!"

Are you listening, Al "I-invented-the-Internet" Gore and George WWW Bush? As each of the major parties' presidential candidates wheedles to prove his swaggering Net-savvy, what better gesture could there be than casting a bid of his own at this auction? Surely it would help with fundraising in Silicon Valley, if only to show those Net moguls that you really "grok" their "medium" -- money.


salon.com | Aug. 17, 2000

- - - - - - - - - - - -

About the writer
Katharine Mieszkowski is a senior writer for Salon Technology.

Sound Off
Send us a Letter to the Editor

Related stories
Candidate Clinton comes to Silicon Valley
Hillary cuts the "virtual ribbon" on a new Web company and shakes down dot-com millionaires for their support.
By Katharine Mieszkowski
03/30/00

Virginity: Going, going, gone!
Love for sale on eBay? Goliath's hormone problems; Posh Spice gobsmacked by goblet larceny. Plus: Dr. Bernard Lewinsky, father of the year.
By Amy Reiter
07/29/99

Salon.com >> Technology
 




 



Don't get sunburned! Cover up with a Salon T-shirt this summer.

Mick Jagger, in Salon's new feature, 'Masterpiece.'

Seinfeld, -- in Salon's new feature, 'Masterpiece'

A tale of adventure, mystery and love.

More great offers in
Salon Plus

____
 
   
 
____
 
  Current Stories

In the belly of the Enron beast The stock price was tanking and the company was coming unraveled -- but Chairman Ken's weekly message to workers at Enron's posh London office was, "Everything's fine." We believed him.
By Peter Wright
[ 01/25/02 ]

Houston under siege Residents of Enron's hometown can't stop comparing the collapse of the energy trader to Sept. 11.
By Katharine Mieszkowski
[ 01/24/02 ]

Enron's human toll How employees of the energy trader got sucked into stock market euphoria -- and catastrophe.
By Christopher Ketcham
[ 01/23/02 ]

Easy come, easy go One of the few Enron employees who still has a job expresses little regret -- even though he lost a "colossal" amount of money.
By Katharine Mieszkowski
[ 01/23/02 ]

 

macromedia.com
Visit our site to learn more about our vision of what the Web can be.



Salon  Search  About Salon  Table Talk  Newsletters  Advertise in Salon  Investor Relations


Arts & Entertainment | Books | Business | Comics | Health | Mothers Who Think | News
People | Politics | Sex | Technology and The Free Software Project
Letters | Columnists | Salon Plus | Salon Shop


Reproduction of material from any Salon pages without written permission is strictly prohibited
Copyright © 2000 Salon.com
Salon, 22 4th Street, 16th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94103
Telephone 415 645-9200 | Fax 415 645-9204
E-mail | Salon.com Privacy Policy