Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

VotePair Encourages "Strategic" Voting

12. October 2004 • Murph
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The website VotePair.org is seeking to match Greens, Libertarians, and Naderites in swing states with Kerry supporters in “safe” states for the purpose of strategic vote swapping—the third party supporters agree to vote for Kerry where it counts, while the Kerry supporter in Texas or Massachusetts vote for the third party candidate in order to keep that candidate “visible”.

Online vote pairing was pioneered in the 2000 Presidential election, though the Detroit Free Press points to the limited scope of that effort:

How much impact a successful vote-swapping operation could have is open to speculation. The groups involved in the 2000 election claimed to have “helped 36,000 voters exchange pledges.” But how many of the 36,000 actually followed through is impossible to know. Nader received 84,165 votes in Michigan in 2000, about 2 percent. Gore had 51 percent of the vote

VotePair does not currently display any information on how many people have registered from any state.

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  1. that is the most idiotic thing I have ever heard of… with the exception of this concept of a “representative democracy”
       —greedkills    Oct. 13 '04 - 04:06AM    #
  2. That was the most intelligent comment I’ve ever seen on a blog. With the exception, I’m sure, of whatever you’re going to reply to this one with. Thanks.
       —Murph    Oct. 13 '04 - 09:46AM    #