Opinion ID: 2607238
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Intent to induce a person to vote for a candidate

Text: As noted above, the Borough's program did not violate Alaska's election laws unless the payment to vote was made with the intent to induce a person to vote for or refrain from voting for a candidate. AS 15.56.030(a)(2). Contestants argue that the program is illegal because the Borough offered something of value in exchange for getting out the vote with the expectation that an increase in voter turnout meant an increase in votes for the Democratic candidate for governor, Tony Knowles. Contestants offered an affidavit in which Thomas Northcott affied that several months after the election, a Borough executive boasted about the high voter turnout in the area, and stated that the incentive behind the gas for votes program was to get Tony Knowles elected. In reviewing the summary judgments entered against the Contestants, the court must draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the Contestants. The parties do not dispute that AS 15.56.030(a)(2) prohibits giving money or other valuable thing with an intention to persuade a person to vote for a candidate. (Because offering to give money or an other valuable thing can also violate AS 15.56.030(a)(2), we need not distinguish between the Borough's offer and its delivery of valuable vouchers to voters.) The averments in Northcott's affidavit would support a finding that the Borough, acting through its officials, intended the program to increase the number of votes cast for Candidate Knowles. Consequently, the question we must answer is whether AS 15.56.030(a)(2) prohibits a candidate-neutral program which gives or offers to give a thing of value in a manner that encourages persons who might otherwise not have voted to go to the polls and cast their votes for candidates for whom they were already inclined to vote. We give the language of AS 15.56.030 its ordinary meaning when interpreting the statute because the language has not acquired a peculiar meaning through statutory definition or previous judicial construction. Foreman v. Anchorage Equal Rights Comm'n, 779 P.2d 1199, 1201 (Alaska 1989); Wilson v. Municipality of Anchorage, 669 P.2d 569, 572 (Alaska 1983). Alaska Statute 15.56.030(a)(2) prohibits offering a thing of value to a person with the intent to induce the person to vote for a candidate. The most common legal definition of induce is to lead on, to influence, to prevail on, to move by persuasion or influence, to bring on or about, to effect, to cause. See Commonwealth v. Mason, 381 Pa. 309, 112 A.2d 174, 176 (1955) (defining induce as to lead on; to influence; to prevail on; to move on by persuasion or influence ...; to bring on or about; to effect; to cause.); People v. Drake, 151 Cal. App.2d 28, 310 P.2d 997, 1003 (1957) (using same definition); La Page v. United States, 146 F.2d 536, 538 n. 2 (8th Cir.1945) (using same definition as Drake ); State v. Cook, 139 Ariz. 406, 678 P.2d 987, 989 (1984) (the generally accepted meaning of induce is, to lead on; to move by persuasion or influence); Black's Law Dictionary 775 (6th ed. 1990) (To bring on or about, to affect, cause, to influence to an act or course of conduct, lead by persuasion or reasoning, incite by motives, prevail on); Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary 587 (1974) (to lead on: move by persuasion or influence; to call forth or bring about by influence or stimulation). These definitions connote an alteration of a person's previous inclination. The terms induce and inducement appear to have been used most frequently in criminal law, especially in entrapment cases. This usage clearly indicates that inducement requires altering a person's disposition to act in a certain way. See, e.g., State v. Hansen, 69 Wash. App. 750, 850 P.2d 571, 579 n. 9 (1993), reversed on other grounds, State v. Stegall, 124 Wash.2d 719, 881 P.2d 979 (1994) (inducement such as might support entrapment defense, is government conduct which creates a substantial risk that an undisposed person or otherwise law-abiding citizen will commit offense); United States v. Salmon, 948 F.2d 776, 779 (D.C. Cir.1991) (Inducement is government behavior that would `cause[] an unpredisposed person to commit a crime.') (citation omitted). In Oregon Republican Party v. State of Oregon, 78 Or. App. 601, 717 P.2d 1206, 1208, remanded for dismissal as moot, 301 Or. 437, 722 P.2d 1237 (1986), the court held that providing postage-paid envelopes which recipients could use to return requests for absentee ballots to the Republican Party's headquarters, did not constitute an inducement to vote under O.R.S. 260.665(2)(a). That statute prohibits inducing a person to register to vote. The court reasoned that because [i]nducement implies the promise of an advantage as a result of performing the desired act, the advantage offered must have an independent value to the voter. Id. Without an independent value in exchange for the performance of the act, the thing offered did not induce the act of registering, but rather facilitated registration. Id. Applying the Oregon court's definition of inducement to this case, to prevail here Contestants must show that something of independent value  gasoline  was offered to encourage voters to cast their ballots for a candidate they would not otherwise have selected. It is insufficient that something of value was offered in exchange for inducing voting per se, because under Alaska law it is legal to compensate a person for voting per se. Unless improperly influenced, voters will cast their ballots in accordance with their own criteria. No doubt voters are influenced by such legitimate criteria as their own socio-economic status and community values. Thus, residents of any given community may naturally tend to favor a particular candidate. Persons whose votes are facilitated by candidate-neutral transportation assistance programs will likely vote for the same candidates they would have favored if they had reached the polls without assistance. Potential voters who could benefit from transportation assistance may share beliefs or values which tend to favor a particular candidate. It is not surprising that some candidates or organizations employ transportation assistance programs to target persons of a particular socio-economic status or party registration, just as other candidates or organizations may employ other programs, such as absentee ballot assistance, hoping to maximize participation of voters thought more likely to favor those candidates. See Oregon Republican Party, 717 P.2d at 1208 (discussing Republican Party mailing of absentee ballots with postage pre-paid envelope). When voting, a person must choose one candidate over others. Thus, if the phrase intent to induce to vote for or refrain from voting for a candidate in AS 15.56.030 is not read to require an intent to persuade voters to choose candidates for whom they would not otherwise have voted, that statute would have to be construed as prohibiting payments for voting per se. As discussed previously, such a reading of the statute would conflict with its plain language. There are many policy arguments for and against the commercialization of votes. See, e.g., Day-Brite Lighting, 342 U.S. at 428, 72 S.Ct. at 409 (Jackson, J., dissenting) (disagreeing with upholding state statutes which require employers to give employees two hours paid leave in order to vote and disapproving of state-imposed pay-for-voting system[s]); Pamela S. Karlan, Not by Money but by Virtue Won? Vote Trafficking and the Voting Rights System, 80 Va. L.Rev. 1455 (1994) (discussing dangers to the polity, especially to economically disadvantaged subsets, of vote-buying schemes and contrasting these schemes with voting incentive programs). These policy arguments have already been resolved in Alaska. The election practice statutes enacted by the Alaska Legislature do not proscribe voter incentive programs which involve compensation for voting, even if the sponsor of a program intends and expects that the program will benefit a particular candidate; they only prohibit payments intended to induce, i.e., influence or persuade, persons to vote in a different manner than they would have otherwise. It is not for the courts to second-guess this permissible legislative choice. Applying that choice to the record before us, we find no evidence which would permit a reasonable inference that the persons responsible for the Borough's transportation assistance program intended to induce voters to vote in a particular manner. Most significantly, there was no evidence the program as conducted was not candidate-neutral. Evidence that persons responsible for the program, by encouraging eligible citizens to vote, intended that the program would result in a net gain of votes for Candidate Knowles would be insufficient to prove a violation of AS 15.56.030(a)(2). As written, the statute does not prohibit payment to induce persons to vote who would not otherwise vote, so long as they are not induced to vote in a particular manner. If a program is candidate-neutral in fact, we must presume voters, in the sanctity of the voting booth, will vote as they would have had they made their ways to the polls without assistance or inducement. [11]