Court: State Wrong to Stop Vote Swapping
Written by Elizabeth Bishop, Senior Internet News Producer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A federal appeals court in San Francisco has ruled that California officials wrongly shut down "vote swapping" Web sites in the days before polls opened before the 2000 presidential election.
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it finally decided the issue to prevent California officials from taking similar action in future elections.
For four days in October 2000, the California-based Web site voteswap2000.com arranged nationwide vote trading between supporters of Democrat Al Gore and Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader.
The idea was that a pro-Nader liberal in a state like Oregon, where polls were showing Gore and Bush neck-and-neck, could find a Gore supporter in a state like Texas, where Bush was sure to win.
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