How a Corporation Legally Bought an Election
This article is for subscribers only.
Recent changes in campaign-finance laws, prompted by the Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case of 2010, have some people worried that corporations can now legally buy a presidential election.
Of course, directly paying citizens to vote for a certain candidate seems unlikely. Ballots are secret and can’t easily be traded, and voting contracts couldn’t be monitored for compliance, much less enforced in court. Under certain conditions, however, companies can almost buy votes outright -- and it has happened before.