You'll be shocked to learn that Chicago Dems are trying to buy votes...

As you're probably aware, Democrats have a nice long history of buying votes with cigarettes. It's called "Smokes for Votes" and, usually, it goes like this: Dem operatives find a few poor homeless souls, and they offer them a pack of cancer sticks as a way of enticing them to make the harrowing, I.D.-free journey to the polls. Just prior to 2000's Gore-Lieberman loss, there was a well-documented example in Milwaukee Wisconsin, but we've seen anecdotal reports of this in almost every election dating back to the Clinton years.

---

Well, times have changed. A meager pack of smokes is apparently no longer enough. In Chicago, they've decided to start offering gift cards. Specifically, Chicago Alderman Leslie Hairston (D) posted a message to Facebook which asked voters to bring in their voting receipt after casting a ballot. According to Hairston, doing so would enter the voter in a lottery which would award gift cards to area stores, fast-food joints, and chain restaurants as well as an untold number of VISA cash cards worth up to $100. If you're thinking that sounds really, really, illegal, you're right. It's a clear violation of election law and a Class IV felony. With that in mind, Fox 32's Dane Placko decided he'd try to go and enter to win "cash and prizes." From the Fox 32 transcript:

FOX 32's Dane Placko: "You offered gift cards for people who came in with a voting slip." Ald. Leslie Hairston: "Well, that is not exactly it." Dane: "How am I wrong?" Hairston: "The post is now gone." Dane: "Well the post was up for some time." Hairston: "And now it's gone." Indeed, the raffle post had disappeared from Hairston's Facebook page by early afternoon. Dane: "Do you understand why people became alarmed about this?" Hairston: "When we found out we took it down."

Considering that someone on her staff must have been tasked with securing the prizes, it remains a mystery how Alderman Hairston could possibly have been unaware of the offer. Does she really expect anyone to believe that she didn't know about a financial outlay that would have paid for several thousand dollars’ worth of gift cards? After the scheme was exposed, the Alderman released a statement.

"...my only intent was to encourage people to exercise their right to vote... There was no subterfuge involved at any time. It may not have been well thought out, but it was well intentioned."

As always with the left, it's not about actions or consequences, it's about the intentions which pave the road to hell. Election law takes a back seat to "meaning well." Possibly more amazing is her argument that, because the offer was removed from her Facebook page, she has somehow made everything OK. Since Alderman Hairston's offer was noticed by election watchdogs and revoked, nothing shady happened at all! Last time I checked, if you attempt to rob a bank - but change your mind halfway through - you're still guilty of the attempt.