By Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Many people are looking forward to this November’s presidential elections.   Some are looking forward to voting in a new president and ushering in a new era, but others are looking forward to it for other reasons – financial opportunities.   A teen has been arrested and charged after allegedly offering to sell his vote on eBay.

Now that he’s been caught, what’s his defense?   “It was a joke”.

If so, Minnesota prosecutors are apparently not seeing the funny side.   They are charging Max P. Sanders with a rarely used 1893 state law that makes it illegal to buy or sell a vote.   If he is convicted (and I fail to see how he can get off this charge), the maximum penalty is 5 years in jail and a $10,000 fine.

The prosecutor’s office said : “There are people that have died for this country for our right to vote, and to take something that lightly, to say, ‘I can be bought.'”

So I guess the moral of this tale is, think twice before listing that “funny” auction on eBay.   You might end up with a cop and a prosecutor at your front door quoting a 115 year old law at you.