Tuesday, May 12, 2015

The Sale of One’s Vote: Campaign Financing Reform




A Jonathan Swift proposal.

In the interest of supporting the political interests of corporations and the richest one-percent, I propose that people—including the economically poor, politically uninvolved, barely educated and otherwise marginalized—be allowed to sell their vote for a particular election.

To make this proposal work fairly, it is necessary that there be uniform-federal rules about the Sale of One’s Vote. 

The vote-seller here must be a presently-registered voter who will give up his or her vote. The vote-purchaser here must be a presently-registered voter who will get an additional vote.

The Sale of One’s Vote must be managed by the register of voters or other local public board in charge of voter registration.  All transactions for the Sale of One’s Vote must be completed 14 calendar days prior to the particular election.

The Sale of One’s Vote must be to a specific individual purchaser, eligible to vote in the same town, city or county as the seller.

A vote-purchaser may only purchase one additional vote for a particular election.

The vote-purchaser must give the vote-seller, $1,000.00 in cash at the office of the register of voters.

The office of the register of voters must give the vote-purchaser a certificate allowing the vote-purchaser to vote a second time in the particular election.

Corporations and individuals who wish to fund individual vote-purchasers must be protected in the Sale of One’s Vote legislation from any civil or criminal penalty for participating in an election or lobbying activity by funding the vote-purchasers.

In a similar manner, vote-sellers must be protected in the Sale of One’s Vote legislation from any civil or criminal penalty for receiving income from the sale of his or her vote—the income received must not be subject to taxes or any existing claims such as tax liens, court judgments, child support garnishment, welfare or SSI computation or offsets, divorce or child support orders, etc.





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