I Gave My Vote Away in the 2008 Election

On Nov 4th 2008, I gave my vote away. No really, I did!

This was a skeptical experiment, intended to inspire questions and enquiry about voting.

PENN JILLETTE's e-mail response to this video:
"I watched it. It's really nice. I'm so flattered that I inspired you.

I don't think lobbyists really buy votes and I don't think lobbyists are evil, but this is a cool video. Thanks.

Penn"

What DEREK of SKEPTICALITY podcast had to say:
"[...]the video is a really good 'lesson' on some of the nitpicks with our election system. Great job man!"

The idea for this short was inspired by the following:

-In July of this year, University of Minnesota student Max P. Sanders put his vote up for sale on Ebay. Sanders was brought up on a Felony charge: one count of bribery, treating and soliciting under an 1893 state law that makes it a crime to offer to buy or sell a vote. If found guilty, he faces up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Im not saying that what he did was right or wrong, I mean on the one hand, people have fought and died to give you a vote, so how dare you belittle that by trying to sell it, but on the other hand People have fought and died to give you a vote and if you cant sell it then its not really yours, and all those people died in vein. (http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/04/ebay.vote.ap/index.html)

-And lets not forget that Congressmen sell their votes all the time to Lobbyists in what is known as Campaign Financing and no, they dont go to jailThey get re-elected.

-The Max P. Sanders case was first brought to my attention by an episode of PennSays. Penn made the interesting and inspiring point that a Vote, like sex, was another thing that was legal to give away, but illegal to sell. I wanted to test this theory. Turns out Penn Jillette was right!

On Nov 4, 2008 I gave my vote to James Knox-Davies

Skeptical Resources:

http://www.skeptic.com/
Read it, share it, live it!
http://www.skepticality.com/
You can call me a groupie of Swoopy :)
http://www.randi.org
James Randi Proves that you dont have to be supernatural to be Amazing.
http://www.discovery.com/mythbusters
When you want your Skepticism with a Bang!
http://www.michaelshermer.com/
No pseudo-science is safe from this man
http://www.pennandteller.com/
Leaving these two out would be Bullshit!

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Election
• Obama
• Palin
• Mccain
• Penn
• Jillette
• Vote
• Ebay
• Shermer
• Swoopy
• Skeptic
• Max
• Sanders
• Carlin
• Pennsays
• Randi
• John
• Rael

[BIGBAGSTUDIOS]

DUDE!!! how cool. and Penn responded. Have you been in contact other than that?

[previewreview]

I contacted him through e-mail in order to tell him about the video and he did write me back a short response. A week later I was contacted by his producer telling me about Penn's video response. I just figured he was going to mention/reference my video. I didn't think the whole damn thing would be about my video. And yeah, it's fuckin' awesome! Totally made my year.

[quinn2469]

Love the video, great points. Some production tips-use a windscreen on your microphones outside and use directional mics that won't pick up some of the background noise.

[previewreview]

Agreed, but I will require you to send me a couple thousand dollars first :). The sort of cool thing about this vid is that it was completely and totally no-budget. Also, there was only about 72 hours from concept to production.

[chrisp1nz]

i feel a little disapointed in myself that I was distracted from the true point of this video by the hot polling girl at the end. What a prick.

[previewreview]

Actually, if you look her up, you might just notice her in the first five minutes of Iron Man.

[andymcgaha]

Smart lady.

[bleunt]

Why isn't selling voting legal? Because then the one with the most money would win. Even more than now. Isn't that pretty apparent? O_o

[CliffDiverMusic]

MY VOTE IS FOR SALE $ Can I get in trouble for a T shirt ??

[KeroroGunsouTX]

Damn, that polling worker was hot!

Also, you need a wind-filter on the camera.

[helliott9]

Actually they changed the word "sex" to "vote"... hence it's a Madlib, not a paraphrase.

[RichoRosai]

Madlib? You mean paraphrase?

[ZachsMind]

In a capitalist state, it's patently absurd to limit commerce, unless there's unarguable evidence that harm is befalling some party. There are too many laws on the books regarding victimless crimes.

Selling is legal. Voting is legal. Selling your vote should be legal.

It's done every day behind closed doors in Washington DC, under the auspices of campaign financing and lobbying.

I don't vote anymore, because any vote w/o money attached has ZERO value. This clinches my opinion.

[GonzoJam]

mine was different, it was a machine with pannels as big as my forearm

[WisdomVendor]

Excellent concept, excellent video.