Page "Vote pairing" Paragraph 16

The debate intensified in the final days of the 2000 election when six Republican state secretaries of state, led by the California state secretary of state, Bill Jones, charged that vote-pairing web sites were illegal and threatened criminal charges against their creators.

Multiple web sites had sprung up that were matching supporters of the Democratic presidential candidate, Al Gore, in nonswing states, with supporters in swing states of the strongest third party candidate, Ralph Nader.

Some argued that Ralph Nader was drawing support from left leaning Democrats that would otherwise vote for Al Gore.

This would have allowed Nader to get more of the popular vote, or at least his fair share of it, and at the same time allowed Gore to perhaps get more of the Electoral College vote.