Vote Swapping Legal
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that vote swapping (or vote pairing) is protected by the first amendment.
Writing for the panel, Judge Raymond Fisher said, among other things, that “any agreements that paired users may have reached about swapping votes were also constitutionally protected. Such agreements — like the e-mails that preceded them — involved people’s opinions on “campaigns for political office,” which are precisely where the First Amendment ‘has its fullest and most urgent application.’ … whatever the wisdom of using vote-swapping agreements to communicate these positions, such agreements plainly differ from conventional (and illegal) vote buying, which conveys no message other than the parties; willingness to exchange votes for money (or some other form of private profit.)”
The article has many links on the background of the case and vote swapping in itself.
