Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Does It Make Sense to Buy Votes?

It's interesting to compare the 'cost per voter' estimates to the prices quoted by some of those who wanted to sell their votes

According to Erik Herron's site (http://vse-na-vybory.blogspot.com/) 'Prices range from 200 grivnya ($25) to over 1000 ($125)'


See also http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/57084/ for more details on these auctions of votes.

Ukrinform (http://www.ukrinform.ua/eng/order/?id=178768) has today some info on the estimated cost per voter for the candidates

"Lytvyn has spent most per a voter than other candidates (USD 146.5 per a voter). Yatseniuk has spent USD 62.6 per a voter having set second in order of importance anti-record of the election race. A third place has gone to Serhiy Tihipko with USD 28.9."

A comparison of the asked prices to the cost per voter, suggests that for the leading candidates (Yulia Tymoshenko and Victor Yanukovych), it did not make sense to buy votes.

Of course, one could argue that one shouldn't compare marginal costs (the prices quoted) to average costs (the cost per voter).



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