During the 2024 elections, there was a question whether Elon Musk was breaking federal law in offering various incentives only to registered voters, including what was essentially a lottery open only to registered voters. He’s up to similar gimmicks in … Continue reading Elon Musk Appears to Be Breaking Wisconsin Law Against Vote Buying in Offering a Chance to Win $1 Million to Anyone Who Voted in Wisconsin Supreme Court Race →
That’s not really how election laws work. There are a ton of different things large and small that powerful people can do to distort the equation “people learn what’s going on -> people vote for good outcomes -> good outcomes happen” and a lot of American democracy comes from people making deliberate efforts to try to preserve the functioning of that system. Just having “you can vote” and calling it good is no guarantee of anything at all. People in Russia can vote with secret ballots, for example.
Except there are definitely good chunk of people who will vote for whoever the price giver wants them to vote for. If past elections have showed us anything is that people are dumb.
So long as votes are secret I don’t care what. You need to be able to vote for whoever you want.
That’s not really how election laws work. There are a ton of different things large and small that powerful people can do to distort the equation “people learn what’s going on -> people vote for good outcomes -> good outcomes happen” and a lot of American democracy comes from people making deliberate efforts to try to preserve the functioning of that system. Just having “you can vote” and calling it good is no guarantee of anything at all. People in Russia can vote with secret ballots, for example.
Except there are definitely good chunk of people who will vote for whoever the price giver wants them to vote for. If past elections have showed us anything is that people are dumb.