On August 6, the 9th circuit ruled in favor of www.voteswap2000.com and against the state of California. The case is Porter v Bowen, 06-55517. This had been one of two minor party-related cases still pending from the 2000 election. The other such case concerns petitioning on post office interior sidewalks.

In 2000, www.voteswap2000.com had been created to let pro-Gore and pro-Nader voters help each other. It was widely known that the 2000 election would be very close, and yet most states were secure for Bush or for Gore. The purpose of the website was to let Nader voters in close states find Gore voters in states that were not close. The webpage helped such individuals find each other. Then, assuming the pair decided that his or her “partner” could be trusted, the Gore voter in the non-close state would promise to vote for Nader, and the Nader voter in the close state would promise to vote for Gore.

The California Secretary of State had threatened the web site with criminal prosecution. In response, the web page closed down but the National Voting Rights Institute sued on behalf of the web page. After 7 years, the web page has won the case. The court said this kind of activity is not the same as bribing people to vote a certain way. The decision says, “The websites did not encourage the trading of votes for money, or indeed for anything other than other votes.”