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.
