post 162

By anders pearson 27 Oct 2000

hacking the election: voteswap is an interesting idea. the idea is to get around the unfortunate situation in which a vote for Nader helps Bush out. it works by exploiting the flaws in the electoral college system. if you live in a swing state where your vote for Nader has a much greater chance of accidently getting Bush elected, you can arrange to swap your vote with someone in a state that is overwhelmingly Democratic or Republican with someone who would ordinarily vote for Gore. that way, both of you win. Gore has a better chance of winning the election and the Green party has a better chance of getting the 5% of the vote necessary to get matching funding in the next election. i’m ineligable to participate since i’m registered in Maine, which is one of only two states (the other being nebraska) which doesn’t give all of its electoral votes to the majority winner.