Trading Votes

While the news in this story on C/Net is good, the very fact that this suit ever had to happen is an outrage. To quote from the Reuters copy: "A U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday in favor of a Web site that enabled Gore and Nader voters to swap their votes in the 2000 presidential elections.
San Francisco resident Alan Porter set up a discussion forum, Votexchange2000.com, two weeks before the 2000 election pitting George W. Bush against Vice President Al Gore and third-party candidate Ralph Nader.

That site and others allowed citizens to swap Gore votes in states where Bush was likely to win anyway for the Green party candidate Nader. A Nader supporter in a state with a closer contest would then pledge to vote for Gore in return. Swaps of votes for other candidates were also theoretically possible."

But California's Secretary of State Bill Jones threatened to shut the site down, and Porter sued. What possible grounds could Jones have had? How can we call it "our vote" if we can't execute it–or not–for any reason and in any manner we choose?