The city’s cannabis collectives, which have also offered up a voter guide to the races, are offering free marijuana and discounts when members show a ballot stub or an “I Voted” sticker on June 3.
Hey! Isn't that illegal???
Yep. Illegal.
Codifying the ban on voter bribery, the United States Congress has prohibited the conspiracy to encourage illegal voting and stated that anyone who "pays or offers to pay or accepts payment either for registration to vote or for voting shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both."
And that's not just cash for votes that's outlawed there! "Not only is a direct payment for a vote prohibited, but any other 'valuable thing, to or for the use of another.'" Like delicious ice cream, which is very valuable. Or pot which is illegal....
BUT... "California...allows voters to receive incentives for voting, so long as the incentives are not offered to induce a voter not to vote, or to vote, or to refrain from voting for a particular candidate or ballot measure, and so long as no federal candidates are on the ballot." Richard L. Hasen, Vote Buying, 88 Cal. L. Rev. 1323, 1355 (2000) (citing Cal. Elec. Code. § 18522(a)(1996)).
