I am sure that many politicians, lobby groups, and parties would love to pay you money to buy your vote. The trouble is, the secret ballot system kind of makes it impossible in literal terms, so it ends up being though blunt policy rather than individual contract. I mean, you could agree to vote for my favourite candidate in return for me giving you a cash payment, but how do I know whether you have complied with or reneged on our agreement?

I propose a new system. The voter wears a device like google glass or some other combined HUD - camera system so that the voter can see the screen and the system can see what the voter is doing. Ideally it would be embedded or at least un-noticably discreet so as not to draw attention to itself.

The voter sees a stream of the latest bids on offer for each vote. They enter the polling station and the image recognition system (as well as validating that the voter is really in the ballot station etc.) scans their ballot paper and overlays virtual price offers. The voter puts their X in the box of their choice and the price of that option at that moment they stuff the completed paper into the ballot box is debited from the offerer’s account and credited to the voter’s.

There would be a web interface where anyone could log in, set up an account, fund their account by bank transfer, and then use their account funds to bid for the quantity and nature of votes they desire.
-- pocmloc, Feb 23 2014

Some prior art exists in the form of the second president Bush tax refund promise and delivery, although it was a lower tech endeavor than this.
-- normzone, Feb 25 2014


Bad form, [norm] old chap.
-- ytk, Feb 25 2014


As we say in Chicago "Vote early, and vote often"
-- popbottle, Feb 25 2014


So, we just reproduce the way Congress goes about business to the voting public. I see...
-- RayfordSteele, Feb 25 2014



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