Before you start phoning the FBI and the state Campaign Spending Commission, please note that the Web site has been closed after several law enforcement agencies started asking questions. We have now evolved a system in which it's OK for money to buy elections, and yet we somehow cling to the fantasy that there's something deeply immoral about the purchase of an individual vote. But, he added, the scheme was fraught with legal dangers, to the extent that Baumgartner could have been charged with conspiracy just for devising the Web site. IN Hawaii, Bob Watada, the Campaign Spending Commission's executive director, noted that it is a felony to buy or sell votes. He also could see the irony in the current system, which makes it legal for companies and individuals seeking favors from politicians to give them thousands of dollars so they can win or remain in office.
Free speech protects persons who want to give money to candidates, so money equals free speech.
But getting money for your vote isn't free speech. It is illegal. Interestingly, the current bunch in the Legislature gave themselves a new way of using money they get during their campaigns. The Campaign Spending Commission tried to close that loophole when lawmakers started buying cars, clothes and trips on campaign money. So if politicians can't buy your vote, at least you can still buy them new cars.