Student's site advocates swapping votes to ensure Gore win

Want Nader and Gore to both get what they want? Well, Jonathan Karush is trying to ensure this "win-win" situation. His Web site, http://winwincampaign.org, advises people whether in their state it's more important to vote for Al Gore, the Democrat, or Ralph Nader, the liberal running on the Green Party ticket. Nader has recently been gaining in key swing states that Gore needs to win the election. Nader wants 5 percent of the popular vote so that his party qualifies for federal funding in 2004, but his quest is killing Gore in the polls. So, a rash of vote-swap Web sites have recently popped up -- and just as quickly been destroyed -- basically telling voters to vote for Gore in swing states in return for a voter in a strong Bush or Gore state picking Nader. Winwincampaign.org, the only legal Web site of this type, has been successful in passing through the filters of the California state government, though the California secretary of state shut down the similar Web sites of voteswap2000.com and vote-exchange.org, saying that they violate state laws against vote brokering. The difference is that Karush will not actually organize vote exchanges. "It works more on an aggregate level," he explained. He added that "a lot of people are wrestling with their vote." In Pennsylvania, for example, "if you're planning on voting for Nader, you might be better off voting for Gore if someone else in, say, Texas votes for Nader," Karush said. Karush's Web site was developed by his company, Liberty Concepts, in conjunction with Tensa, a San Francisco Internet company. Still, the idea of brokering votes is a concept that has angered others besides the California secretary of state. The Nader campaign has come out publicly against the idea of trading votes. "We don't believe in tactical voting in any form," Nader spokesman Tom Adkins said. College sophomore Emily Quesada of the Penn Greens organization not only disagrees with Karush's concept, but abhors completely the idea of voting for Gore. "If I had three hands... if I could plug my nose, cover my eyes and hold my stomach, I might be able to vote for Gore," Quesada said. "I don't want Gore to win because then he'll think he can continue to be moderate and still win an election," she added. The idea of vote-swapping has gained many followers, however. Tens of thousands of hits have been tallied on Karush's site. "I think the Internet can be used as a great grassroots political technology," Karush said. "This is a great thing for democracy." Gill Case, an at-home mother from Rhode Island who is attributed with the original idea for the Web site, agrees. "Citizens across the country can take meaningful action in the presidential election through winwincampaign.org," she said. "I want success for both Ralph Nader and Al Gore."