Friday, December 02, 2005

FBI candidates

The FBIs tactics have often been suspicious and on the borderline of legality, but I was surprised to find them going this route and having the courts OK it. The case revolves around a corruption probe by the FBI in West Virginia. The FBI flipped a local mayor and set him up running as a candidate in a local election in order to gain evidence on vote-buying schemes in the region. The FBI had their candidate withdraw from the race two days before the vote, but his name still appeared on the ballot and he ended up getting more than 2,000 votes, finishing last. It seems that by posting phony candidates, the FBI is engaging in voter manipulation. The 2,000+ votes garnered by the FBIs candidate would have gone to other candidates and, therefore, could have materially altered the result of the election. If the FBI is allowed to do this in cases in which it seems appropriate, it might be able to step in and take similar actions under the guise of fighting corruption where there is less of a reason, and through these means, influence an election covertly. As the defense lawyer argued:
"By placing a false candidate in the election, a sham candidate, one [the government] knew could not take office, every vote that was cast for Esposito was a vote that an honest voter could have cast for an honest candidate."

Hopefully there will be some way in which there is oversight for FBI actions to fight corruption, if not on the state level, then nationally.

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