From the AP (via Yahoo!)
A college student claimed it was all a joke when he put his vote in this fall’s presidential election up for sale on the Web auction site eBay. But prosecutors didn’t see the humor.
University of Minnesota student Max P. Sanders, 19, was charged with a felony Thursday in Hennepin County District Court after allegedly asking for a minimum of $10 in exchange for voting for the bidder’s preferred candidate.
“Good luck!” Sanders wrote under the eBay handle zepdrummer612. “You’re (sic) country depends on You!”
Sanders was charged with one count of bribery, treating and soliciting under an 1893 state law that makes it a crime to offer to buy or sell a vote.
I’m with the prosecutors on this one. I don’t see the humor either.
It never occurred to Max Sanders that buying and selling votes was maybe prohibited by law? I have about as much patience for this type of tomfoolery as I do with the people that get a credit card for their springer spaniel. The difference being that nobody died for the right to apply for a credit card. People actually suffered and died so that rest of us can have the right to vote.
One doesn’t have to go far in the annals of history to find examples of what I am talking about. Harold Ickes, former deputy White House Chief of Staff for Bill Clinton and campaign strategist for Hillary Clinton, only has one kidney. While working as a volunteer in Louisiana during the civil rights movement, he received such a severe beating from a gang of rednecks that he lost a kidney.
He lost a major organ so people could vote.
It’s bad enough that we rarely — if ever — have anyone on the ballot really worth voting for. People like Max Sanders should treat it with just a skosh bit more respect. They shouldn’t be listing it on eBay like its a potato that kind of looks like Jesus.
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5 Responses
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Well said. I get fed up with people talking about “dying for the flag”–it’s only a piece of cloth. Dying for voting rights and freedom–that’s completely different.
I think a lot of people in our country seriously take for granted some of the basic tenets upon which this country was founded.
There are also a lot of people who are incapable of thinking things through. To say you are going to put your vote up for sale on Ebay might sound funny on a barstool at last call, but following through with it shows a lack of respect and lack of dignity.
When people say bad things about the younger generations, this is exactly what they’re talking about. One more reason to raise the voting, drinking, and smoking age to 25.
I feel horribly crushed from both sides- the idiot boomers ahead of me who ruined the country and the retarded younger generation that can’t think its way out of its own stink.
This attempt to sell his vote shows how little regard young people have for democracy and the right to vote. Perhaps if they lived in a country where citizens don’t have the right to vote, they might have a clue … Maybe. These bloggers are quick with their trite little quips, while having no understanding of the blood, sweat and tears it took to achieve and maintain free and incorrupt elections. What a bunch of stupid, naive children. I say lock them up and make an example of them!
Well,
I’m one of those young voters and I feel ill hearing about his rather ill processed ideas. I can’t believe he’d disrespect a Nation of people just because he thought it was funny… I’m twenty-one but I respect and love America. Believe it or not there are many of us youngesters out here that really believe in the ideals and foundations that our Nation was built upon. Please don’t generalize that all of us in the younger generations are that stupid and disrespectful.
But unfortunately, Dboy, you are in the minority. I would like to think otherwise, but just surveying the young crowd at thelocal mall can tell you everything you need to know about poor choices and ignorance of youth.
I’m sure that there are many young people who do not fit that label, but there are SO MANY MORE THAT DO. Look at how many ill-informed people are supporting Obama. That is fueled in large part by young people.