Voters are swapping ballots in an unprecedented move that could cause much trouble to the Republican nominee for president Donald Trump on Tuesday. The great “vote swap” of 2016 is sparking many discussions on social media.
Voters, who want to vote for candidates like former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson and Green Party leader Jill Stein, but live in a swing state can swap their vote with a Hillary Clinton voter from a safe state.
The two parties exchange via the website Trump Traders, which was put together by Republicans who support Clinton and want to stop a Trump presidency. There is also, Amit Kumar, a naturalized immigrant and Silicon Valley entrepreneur, who created an app called #NeverTrump that has become a big part of the anti-Trump movement.
The founder and CEO of Trimian, who has worked for Yahoo Small Business in the past, explained how he came up with the idea during an interview with BBC. Kumar told the British publication: “In California we hear our vote doesn’t matter. We’ve been hearing this for decades, but what can we do about it?”
Some Trump supporters have tried to take advantage of the app, but its creator is adamant: “They’re trying to do it, but they’re not succeeding.” It requires a LinkedIn or a Facebook profile for verification. A few critics were also quick to point out that those vote swap systems may raise some legal questions. However, based on a 2007 ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, vote swapping is fine and protected by the U.S. Constitution.
John Stubbs, a senior advisor in the George W. Bush administration, who founded TrumpTraders.org and R4C16.org, had this to say about the whole process: “Many people were telling us that while they may be a ‘never Trump’ person, they are also a ‘never Clinton’ person.” He also added: “Our argument is that Trump is much worse… but in doing so we acknowledge that we desperately need more options.”
According to a rough estimate, at least 50,000 vote trades were made on the different websites. 537 votes separated Al Gore and Bush in Florida in the 2000 election.
I will never again trade my vote.
I live in a swing state and a group of us for Ralph Nader traded our votes to people in Vermont. There wound up being fewer votes in the Vermont precinct for Nader than we had traded.
Your ballot is secret, there is nothing to guarantee that someone will actually trade.