VOTE BUYING: Simple, effective

Vote buying occurs when a political party or candidate seeks to buy the vote of a voter in an upcoming election. Vote buying can take various forms such as a monetary exchange, as well as an exchange for necessary goods or services. [Elections for Sale: The Causes and Consequences of Vote Buying Frederic Charles Schaffer, editor]

This practice is often used to incentivize or persuade voters to turn out to elections and vote in a particular way. Although this practice is illegal in many countries such as the United States, Argentina, Mexico, Kenya, Brazil and Nigeria, its prevalence remains worldwide. [Electoral fraud, Wikipedia].

Maybe not so much in the United States, after all. At a campaign event before the Senate runoff election in Georgia, President elect Joe Biden told the electorate the following. “If you send Jon and the Reverend to Washington, those two-thousand-dollar checks will go out the door restoring hope and decency and honor for so many people who are struggling now. If you send Senators Perdue and Loeffler back to Washington, those checks will never get there. It’s just that simple.”

Georgia had not sent a Democrat to the Senate in 20 years. Yet on January 5, Democrats Jon Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock both won against their Republican opponents. What do you think, folks? Is it “just that simple?”

BOB LaRUE

Hauser