FC: Chicago officials try to shut down voteauction.com

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[The guys at voteauction.com were smart enough to move it offshore, so 
there's not a whole lot that the spoilsports in Chicago can do. They could, 
I suppose, try to get an injunction in federal court telling Network 
Solutions to delete the domain name from its registry database. (Anyone 
know if this has ever been tried successfully? I've often wondered why we 
haven't heard of this tactic.) Still, participants could just use the IP 
address or the voteauction.ai or whatnot address, so it may not be worth 
it. --Declan]

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Background on voteauction.com and controversy over it:
http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=00/09/29/0524228&mode=nested

*******

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-2934217.html?tag=st.ne.1002.thed.ni

   Chicago tries to close vote Web site
   By The Associated Press
   October 4, 2000, 9:25 p.m. PT

   CHICAGO--Mindful of the city's history as a place where elections have
   been bought, Chicago officials are trying to shut down a Web site that
   offers votes to the highest bidder.

   The Board of Elections sent letters yesterday to federal and state
   prosecutors, saying that Voteauction.com should be shut down.

   "In Chicago we react strongly and quickly to this type of
   activity--whether it's tongue-in-cheek or not--because we need to
   guard our reputation here that this is a place where voting activity
   is legal and aboveboard and beyond reproach," board chairman Langdon
   Neal said.

   Voteauction provides "a forum for campaign contributors and voters to
   come together in a free market exchange," according to the site.
   Voteauction says it will collect absentee ballots from voters, verify
   them, and then sell them to the highest bidder, who can "choose who
   the group will vote for en masse." Sellers then receive money
   depending on how much is bid.

   [...]

   The U.S. attorneys' office has forwarded the board's letter to the
   Justice Department, and the state's attorney's office would only say
   it received the letter.

   [...]




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