I read this article today in the New York Times about how the Clinton campaign paid people in Texas and other states to round up people to vote on primary day. It was a pay-per-vote kind of ‘get out the vote’ effort. Anywhere from $100 to $200 per person to spend their day getting undecided neighbours, friends, colleagues and perfect strangers to go vote for Clinton. I’m happy to say Obama’s campaign does not appear to have utilised this method.
Indeed this tool is technically legal because you’re not paying the voter him/herself to vote for you; rather, you are going through a middle-man, but isn’t this just as bad? Surely this practice could be likened to money laundering? It’s vote laundering: paying a middle-man to make a vote ‘clean.’