Bids for Presidential Votes Started at 99 Cents on eBay

Who says money can’t buy votes?

Six people offered to sell their vote for president on the Internet this week, fetching as much as $10,100 before online auctioneer eBay canceled the bidding.

Meanwhile, another site is soliciting undecided voters to offer as a block to the highest bidder for each state. By Friday, bidders already offered $100 each for New York and California, which together have 87 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.

Federal and state laws prohibit the sale of votes, and eBay said it is cooperating with investigators from the Justice Department and Washington state, the home of one attempted seller.

“We’d like to think we’ve got a good sense of humor . . . but these are people who are dealing with violations of federal law,” eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove said.

An eBay user first notified the company about a sale on Wednesday night, Pursglove said. He said eBay found and canceled others on Thursday because they violate company policies prohibiting sales of illegal goods.

One offering under the header “Vote of One U.S. Citizen” received 20 bids, the highest for $10,100. Another individual got one bid for $1, and a third received a bid for 99 cents. Three others had no bids, according to eBay records.

Justice Department officials did not return a call Friday about the auctions.

Advocates of overhauling campaign finance already believe votes are for sale--to the largest campaign contributors.

Sheila Krumholz, research director at the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, said these attempted sales could be no more than an expression of frustration with the political system.

“Everybody knows money has had an undeniable impact in the system today,” she said.

Voteauction.com, the site taking bids by state, promises to collect votes by absentee ballot, verify them and mail them “to the appropriate election district.”

“The election industry is spending hundreds of millions of dollars in an attempt to influence the presidential election,” organizers said in a statement. “This system is an inefficient waste of money for the candidates and their supporters.”

The site aims to improve the system “by bringing the campaign contributors’ money directly to the voters.”