Website offers punters a solution to Gore/Nader voting dilemma

Left-leaning voters in swing states across the US have a real dilemma - how to support the consumers' champion, Mr Ralph Nader, without, in doing so, handing their states over to Mr George Bush.

Now a high-tech solution appears to offer them the opportunity of maximising the effect of their vote, helping Mr Nader to reach the 5 per cent he needs to get matching funds next time out and without threatening Mr Gore's prospects: Gore/Nader vote swaps on the Internet.

The idea is simple - a Nader voter in a marginal agrees to vote Gore in exchange for the reverse promise from a Democratic supporter elsewhere.

Two new Internet sites are facilitating just such swaps and in one week have generated more than 100,000 hits, according to the Miami Herald. Florida is one of the eight states which could be tipped against Mr Gore by a Nader vote.

"We've all heard it: A vote for Nader is a vote for Bush," states the introductory page to the Nader Trader website. "Wouldn't it be great if you could both vote for Ralph Nader AND against George W. Bush?"

"I think that it helps both candidates," said Mr Jeff Cardille (33), a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin who launched http://www.nader trader.com/ eight days ago after a dinner conversation.

Nader Trader encourages voters to spread the vote-swapping idea among friends and relatives and to hunt for possible partners.

Another website called http://www.voteswap2000.com/ takes the swapping concept even further. A computer program matches Nader supporters in swing states with Gore supporters from states where one candidate is sure to win.

But Mr Alan Kobrin, Nader campaign co-ordinator for Florida, said vote-swapping is a "neat trick" that dodges the real issue - two-party politics and the need for structural political change.