[1069] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Sell Your Votes!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Rhett Creighton)
Mon Mar 11 00:10:57 2002
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Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.33.0203110003390.21796-100000@sub-zero.mit.edu>
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 00:05:14 -0500
From: Rhett Creighton <rhett@MIT.EDU>
To: MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU
Voting just started! Do you not care about the UA election? Could you
use $10? Then the answer is simple: Write in Creighton / Brar as the UA
President/Vice President. For the only time in your life, you could
write-in a vote for ticket that wins.
How to do it:
1) Go to http://vote.mit.edu
2) For UAP/VP, Write in: "Creighton / Brar" (choose as #1 preference)
3) Submit your vote.
4) e-mail <votecreighton@yahoo.com> with your e-mail address as the
subject to redeem your money.
5) Sit back and wait to collect your $10
After you vote, you can earn money through our referral program:
1) Tell an undergraduate to vote for us
2) e-mail <votecreighton@yahoo.com> with "Referral: <username>" where
<username> is the athena user name of the person who you referred.
3) Sit back and wait to collect $10 in addition to other incentives
earned through this program.*
*To receive $10, you need to send us their username before they do. If
they send it first, they get the full $10.
Example:
You vote for us, send us an e-mail, and send us 6 referrals, who all vote
for us. That means you get:
$10 + 6* $10= $70.
F.A.Q.
Q: Are you buying votes?
A: We're supporting the undergraduate body with undergraduate funds.
Don't you feel that you know the best way to spend money that is meant to be
spent on you?
Q: Where does the money come from?
A: A little known, and often never discussed fact of the UAP candidacy is
the UAP discretionary Bush Fund, currently at $5,000. The purpose of the
fund is to give $5,000 for the UA President to spend on "however he so
pleases" and "the figures are not to be disclosed to anyone" You can find
references to it on old Tech articles here:
http://www-tech.mit.edu/V113/N59/chung.59o.html
http://www-tech.mit.edu/V113/N55/council.55n.html
http://www-tech.mit.edu/V113/N57/finboard.57n.html
Since 500 votes is usually enough to win the UA election, that gives us
enough money in the Bush Fund to pay $10 for each vote.
Q: Isn't a good UA president worth more that the $10 you'd give us?
A: First off, I will be a great UA president, I just think that it's
better to run as a write in to prove that it was really the people's
voice. And secondly, ask yourself when the last time you said to
yourself "Man I'm glad I have a good UA president". Shit, can you even
name the current president?
Q: When do I get the money?
A: Our payment is contingent on being elected so that we will have
control over the Bush Fund. Immediately after the election, we will
e-mail everyone on our list, if elected. We will then accept requests
for people to be paid through Paypal.com. For those who don't prefer
Paypal, we will set up a table in the student center with a list of
everyone's name and pay you in cash. We are limiting the payment to the
first 500 votes to collect, so cast your votes early!
Q: You guys are write-in's. How could you win?
A: First, it is important to note that a write-in won a previous UAP
election in the 1970s, so this wouldn't be the first case of it
happening. Second, because we aren't official candidates, we don't need
to follow the same procedure as candidates on the ballot, so in many ways,
we are at an advantage. It is a fact that most undergraduates at MIT
don't care about the election. Because our voter base is comes from
apathetic MIT students, we have the largest voter pool. Also, when have
you ever had an incentive like this to vote?!
Q: What if I vote for Josiah, and send an e-mail to your list anyway?
A: It is possible that you could cheat this system, but we expect the vote
count to be close. By providing you with cash, only if we win, we are
providing you with positive incentive to actually vote for us and tell
others to vote for us as well.
Q: Aren't you cheating the UA out of money? Is this embezzlement?
No. It may surprise you to find out that the UA president can spend that
money on anything for him or herself, and you are not ever supposed to
know about it. The UA also spends money on a lot of things to make itself
feel self important. For example, in the UA council minutes:
http://web.mit.edu/ua/www/minutes/091001Minutes.html
you'll see things like, "We received $30K from the d'Arbeloff fund to
facilitate and improve alumni/student interactions over the next two years
so we need a plan of how to do this . . . UA Retreat on Cape Cod is
September 29-30 . . ."
Q: When I graduate from MIT, I intend to be a very important person, and
I'm afraid that selling a vote could tarnish my image. Should I be
worried?
A: We will keep the names of every voter that we pay completely
confidential.
Q: I *do* care who is UA president somewhat. I really don't want Yoon to
be president, and I'm worried that voting for you could make that happen.
Can I still get $10 and vote for Josiah?
A: Yes! The answer is simple. Simply vote for "Creighton / Brar" as a
write in for your #1 choice, and Josiah Seale/ Deora as your #2 choice.
That means that if our ticket doesn't get enough votes, your vote
automatically goes to Josiah's ticket in full force, so you have nothing
to lose!
Q: Who are you guys again?
A: Rhett Creighton <rhett@mit.edu> and Victor Brar <vbrar@mit.edu>. You
may remember Rhett Creighton from last year's UA election. We're going
to bring the undergraduate resources back to the undergraduate body.
Hi ho!
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