MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota college student looking to profit off his political indifference has been charged with a felony for trying to sell his vote on the auction Web site eBay.

The student, Max P. Sanders, 19, of Edina, was charged Thursday with one count of bribery, treating and soliciting, a felony under an 1893 Minnesota law that criminalizes the sale and purchase of votes.

In May Mr. Sanders set a minimum bid of $10 for his vote this November and offered to provide photographic documentation inside the booth.

Mr. Sanders, whose auction was halted before anyone bid, declined to comment. He is studying liberal arts at the University of Minnesota.

The state law was actively enforced during Prohibition, when “people would go into bars and dig out drunks and give them a $20 and try to buy their vote,” said Mike Freeman, the Hennepin County attorney, who said he did not know of any other modern abuses.

“We’re not humorless in the county attorney’s office and we’re not in the horse-and-buggy age,” Mr. Freeman said, “but we decided it’s something we just couldn’t blow off. Sometimes in this business we need to make statements.”

Attending a Fourth of July parade, where he observed a veteran limping along the streets, reinforced his decision, said Mr. Freeman, who is a Vietnam veteran. “A lot of us served in the military trying to protect the right to vote,” he said. “This is serious stuff.”

The charge carries up to five years’ imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. Mr. Freeman said an “appropriate” penalty was more likely to entail community service, not jail time.

Still, he stands by the old law. “We have an opportunity to clean up laws and we often do, but selling your vote — I don’t care whether it’s an 1893 law or a 2005 law,” Mr. Freeman said. “If it came up tomorrow, I’d vote for it.”

Mr. Sanders has defenders online, who invoke patriotic arguments of their own.

“Students have a right of speech, and any person has a right to joke and comment,” read a posting on a Craigslist forum Friday.

It added, “Defend what the fathers and mothers of this country died for: write letters, protest and unite against a criminal charge he is facing.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/05/us/05vote.html

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