A Sweetwater school board candidate is withdrawing her offer to give a free Subway sandwich to voters today after U-T Watchdog informed her that the offer likely violates federal election law.
Dana Toogood — who is running for seat 2 in South County’s high school district — owns four Chula Vista Subway franchises and offered a free in-store sandwich to those who show an ad from her campaign and proof that they voted….
Lots of businesses do it, but in fact it’s illegal,” said election law expert Richard Hasen, a professor at the University of California Irvine School of Law….
“I think it’s probably motivated by a good reason, a civic-minded reason to try and get people to vote, but federal law does not allow payments for turnout in part because if they were allowed, people could direct the offers to different areas where they are likely to side with one candidate or party,” Hasen said….Notified of the law, Toogood said, “Holy cow, thanks for telling me,” adding that employees would be told to halt the promotion.
Reminds me of the time I got Ben and Jerry’s to give free ice cream to kids to avoid the vote buying problem.