Government Technology

E-Vote: Vote-Swapping Web Sites Protected by First Amendment, Says Court


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August 7, 2007 By

In a decision stemming from a dispute during the controversial presidential election of 2000, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that so-called "vote-swapping" Web sites are protected by the First Amendment.

A number of these Web sites sprung up in the last weeks of the 2000 campaign between George W. Bush and Al Gore that allowed third-party supporters of Ralph Nader in swing states to strategize with major-party voters in "safe" states about "trading" their votes to avoid handing the election to their least-preferred candidate.

The sites were quickly shut down when then-California Secretary of State Bill Jones sent letters to operators of a Web site threatening to prosecute them for what he called "vote-buying," even though no money or other type of financial benefit changed hands.

The ACLU of Southern California and the National Voting Rights Institute represented Web site operators Alan Porter (voteswap2000.com) and William Cody (voterexchange2000.com) and two individual voters, Patrick Kerr and Steven Lewis. The case, originally filed in November 2000, argued in part that the threats by Jones violated the First Amendment rights of the Web site operators and exceeded the scope of Jones' authority under California's election code. The National Voting Rights Institute is now affiliated with Demos, a national, non-partisan public policy, research and advocacy center.

The Ninth Circuit's ruling now establishes that the activities that Secretary Jones attempted to squelch "are at the heart of the liberty safeguarded by the First Amendment" and cannot be prosecuted under vote-buying statutes. The decision will be an important precedent protecting the right of Web site operators and voters to maintain and use such sites in future presidential elections, said Demos in a release.


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