Here's a Bait-and-Switch Opportunity

Joanna Glasner at Wired News reports on this year's vote-swapping schemes:

Supporters of third-party candidates, be they save-the-spotted-owl Greens or trim-the-government Libertarians, are finding themselves in a similar quandary this presidential election year.

They dislike both George W. Bush and John Kerry, but not equally. The dilemma: By casting a vote for a third candidate, they fear they'll inadvertently boost the campaign of the major-party candidate they despise most.

Help is on the way. While their methodologies may not be legal or even tested, a number of websites are cropping up to allow backers of presidential wannabes from alternate parties to vote their conscience without draining support for a preferred major-party candidate in a crucial swing state.

So-called vote-swapping, or vote-pairing, efforts under way for November's election largely mimic those that cropped up in 2000 to minimize the impact of Ralph Nader on Democrat Al Gore's chances of victory. Through such websites as like VoteSwap2000, Votexchange2000 and Nadertrader.org, Nader supporters in swing states agreed to vote for Gore if a voter in a solidly pro-Bush or pro-Gore state agreed to vote for Nader in their stead.

This year, with fewer votes expected to go to Nader, some want to make it more comfortable for voters of all stripes to withhold support for the Democratic and Republican candidates....

Who's more gullible, Nader supporters, Bush supporters or Kerry supporters? Let's put it to the test. I live in Texas, a sure win for Bush. I'll honor the request of the first person who asks me to vote for Nader, under two conditions: (1) That person must live in a state in which the Bush-Kerry race is very tight. (2) That person must agree to vote for Bush. Come on, let's hear from you gullible Naderites out there.