Colorado representatives Paul Rosenthal (D-Denver) and Dave Williams (R-Colorado Springs) have introduced HB 1014, which would make it illegal for two voters to agree to swap votes. Although the bill applies to votes for all office and all ballot measures, clearly it is designed to stop “vote trading” in presidential elections between two voters living in different states. Here is the text. The bill also repeals the law against “selfies”, i.e., taking a picture of one’s voted ballot and showing it to anyone else.
The part of the bill outlawing vote-swapping arguably violates the First Amendment. Federal courts in California in the last decade struck down the Secretary of State’s determination that vote-swapping for president between two voters in different states is illegal. Thanks to Sam Husseini for the news about the Colorado bill.
How is this law even enforceable? It’s an absolute farce. Not that I’d ever swap my vote, but if people want to do that, I see no reason at all it should be illegal.
Re: Enforceability. I agree, it’s hard to enforce. As I see it, it could be enforced, but to do so would require massive government surveillance of people’s social media (or other electronic communications) to ascertain who is attempting to enter into such agreements. I would hope that most Americans (and not just libertarians) would find this level of surveillance appalling.
How is a two-person political coalition, formed to advance a two-plank platform, worse than every other kind of political coalition we have?
How about adopting ranked-choice voting or approval voting instead? Then people will have no reason to swap votes.