3 Gore-Nader Vote Trading Sites Shut Down

Under pressure from California elections officials, sponsors have shut down an Internet site that arranged vote trading between supporters of Democrat presidential nominee Al Gore and Green Party nominee Ralph Nader. At least two other similar sites closed voluntarily.

But at least three others remained online Tuesday as Gore backers maneuvered to win battleground states where Nader could draw away Democratic votes.

The scheme even reached Capitol Hill, where a House staff member supporting Gore used his government e-mail to arrange a trade. The staffer said using government e-mail was a mistake.

No other state has pressured the remaining sites to close, but some state elections officials said they were looking into the legality of swapping votes.

California officials said they directly contacted https://www.voteswap2000.com to inform the Web operator that the site violated state law. At least two other sites, https://www.voteexchange.org and https://www.votexchange2000.com, had messages on their sites Tuesday saying they also had closed.

The sites seek to have Nader supporters in contested states vote for Gore, in exchange for Democrats in states leaning heavily toward Republican Gov. George W. Bush vote for Nader.