Here’s Proof of My End of the Election Contract
I wrote yesterday (Political Promises Must Be Treated As Legally Binding Contracts) about the contract between voters and politicians.
In summary: because civil law describes a contract as an offer, consideration and acceptance, in politics we have:
1. (Offer) - The candidate promises/offers to do/not do something specific.
2. (Consideration) - The candidate promises to do/not do this in exchange for a vote.
3. (Acceptance) - The voter casts his/her vote on the basis of the candidate’s positions/promises.
Yesterday, I mentioned that people who vote via absentee ballot can most easily record their votes.
This is exactly what I have done. I scanned every page of my filled in ballot - 37 MB of high-resolution color images. (The image on this page is reduced).
This .pdf contains a complete verification of my consideration (payment) in exchange for the offer (promise.) I’ve got the scan of my signature on the envelope (showing my name, address etc). I even sent it back Express Mail with a return receipt to verify it was received.
This is a complete record of every contract offered and my acceptance and consideration.
Failure of the person or proposition soliciting my vote to uphold their end of the contract is breach of contract. In such a breach, their campaign advertisements could be considered false and misleading (fraud) and those who engaged in the fraud are guilty of conspiracy and, perhaps racketeering.
A candidate could argue that:
- A vote is worthless and not worthy of consideration.
- She or he was insane or mentally incompetent and not capable of the offer.
- The voter is similarly insane or mentally incompetent and cannot accept the offer.
- That nothing they said should have been taken seriously because they lied
Right. That would be theater worth watching.
I’ll be watching my contracts closely. That’s less about Obama and more about local hospital funding, legislative races, California State Propositions and more. They need to do what they promised. Vote the way they said; spend money as written.
