3. Ninth Circuit Upholds Vote Swapping
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that vote swapping was a constitutionally protected right, which was infringed by the California Secretary of State during the 2000 Presidential elections. During the election, two websites hosted vote swapping between individuals in swing states and safe states. The California Secretary of State threatened the website operators with criminal prosecutions and they disabled the vote swapping mechanism.


The website owners brought suit alleging a violation of their First Amendment rights. This month, the Ninth Circuit wrote, "The websites' vote-swapping mechanisms as well as the communication and vote swaps they enabled were constitutionally protected. Although California certainly has valid interests in preventing election fraud and corruption, and perhaps in avoiding the subversion of the Electoral College, these interests did not justify the complete disabling of the vote-swapping mechanisms." The court went on to find the Secretary had qualified immunity because the constitutionality of vote swapping was not clearly established in 2000.