Comment Text:
Election gambling clearly goes against the public's interests and must not be allowed. Imagine the disaster for our democracy if a Wall Street firm could place a massive bet on election outcomes – then spend millions on Super PACs and disinformation campaigns to try and skew the results. Who even thought of this??
Among other things:
- Allowing this proposal will undermine the integrity of our elections and our democracy.
- Allowing betting on election outcomes will create strong financial incentives for special interests to manipulate and interfere in our elections.
- Allowing this proposal will reduce voter confidence, and lead to a perception that election outcomes are not solely determined by voters’ choices, but also by those who bet on election results.
- Allowing this proposal puts personal gain ahead of the public interest.
- Allowing this proposal undermines the principle of one person, one vote – the bedrock of our democracy.
The fact is, we already have a major problem when wealthy special interests try to manipulate our elections for financial gain. The last thing we need is to be encouraging that behavior even more. Our elections are not a game to be won or lost for financial gain – they’re supposed to be about one person, one vote.
