CovOps
 Location : Ether-Sphere
Job/hobbies : Irrationality Exterminator
Humor : Über Serious
 |  Subject: Funny: Libertarian to pay penny a vote in campaign fund protest  Tue Sep 16, 2014 1:05 am | |
| Some people might call it a gimmick, but David Snowden Overby, a self-described “old liberal from the ’60s,” prefers to call his Election Day plan to pay people to vote for him “guerrilla theater.”
Overby, a Libertarian candidate in Iowa House 57 in Dubuque County, said he and his friends plan to stand outside polling places Nov. 4 to give a penny to anyone who promises to vote for him.
“I want to make a point that the election system is corrupt,” Overby, a former Charles City newspaper editor, said. “If faceless PACs and other organizations can pay millions of dollars to buy elections, I can certainly give voters a penny. At least I’m honest.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has called campaign contributions free speech, Overby said, and “this is taking it to its logical conclusions.”
Although political action committees pumping millions of dollars into campaigns is legal, paying people at the polls isn’t, according to Dubuque County Auditor Denise Dolan and the Iowa Secretary of State Office.
Overby and his friends could face a variety of charges.
Dolan hasn’t discussed the situation with the Dubuque County attorney and said she doesn’t plan to monitor polling places to see if Overby shows up.
“If he’s doing it, I’ll hear about it from my poll workers,” she said.
Overby believes he has a legal defense if he is charged.
“There are laws against campaigning in front of the polling site, but no laws against buying votes,” he said. “It’s a fine point.”
The law is clear, according to Sarah Reisetter of the Secretary of State Office. Iowa law makes it a Class D felony to “pay, offer to pay or cause to be paid money or any other thing of value to a person to influence a persons’ vote.”
She did concede a defense attorney could argue a penny would not influence a person’s vote.
“A buck or 10 bucks might be different,” Dolan said. “It might get some attention.”
Regardless of the law, Overby’s not afraid to get arrested. In fact, he would love to be arrested to make his point.
“We have to do what we have to do to get the conversation started,” Overby said. “I’m 70 now, so I can do what I want. They can’t send me to ’Nam this time.”
Paying people to vote for him “not-so-subtly informs the voter about how much their vote is worth, considering the election already has been bought by outside interests,” Overby said.
Overby won’t know until Election Day how much his ploy will cost. If he spends more than $750, he has to file organizational papers with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board.
“So I’ll stay under $750,” he said.
Sympathizers may make anonymous donations of pennies at Overby’s 150-year-old family farm on Swiss Valley Road near Peosta.
http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/libertarian-to-pay-penny-a-vote-in-campaign-fund-protest/article_fb75c426-d8cd-5b39-8311-c73af4c540ef.html |
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RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space
Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
| | Subject: Re: Funny: Libertarian to pay penny a vote in campaign fund protest Tue Sep 16, 2014 4:56 am | |
| - Quote :
- “There are laws against campaigning in front of the polling site, but no laws against buying votes,”
But is it illegal to sell your vote? |
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CovOps
Location : Ether-Sphere
Job/hobbies : Irrationality Exterminator
Humor : Über Serious
| | Subject: Re: Funny: Libertarian to pay penny a vote in campaign fund protest Tue Sep 16, 2014 7:42 am | |
| | Good idea. Start a vote selling futures exchange... |
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| | Subject: Re: Funny: Libertarian to pay penny a vote in campaign fund protest | |
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