At least seven eateries in D.C. are offering deals to people who walk in wearing an “I Voted” sticker. As we’ve said over again and again, this is most likely illegal.

So sayeth THE MAN (or, more specifically, 18 U.S. Code § 597):

Whoever makes or offers to make an expenditure to any person, either to vote or withhold his vote, or to vote for or against any candidate; and whoever solicits, accepts, or receives any such expenditure in consideration of his vote or the withholding of his vote—shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

“It is illegal to pay people to turn out to vote when there are federal candidates on the ballot,” Rick Hasen, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, told DCist in 2012. Despite not being a full member of Congress, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton is a federal candidate.

The D.C. Code also makes it pretty clear:

A person shall not knowingly or willfully:
(A) Pay, offer to pay, or accept payment of any consideration, compensation, gratuity, reward, or thing of value for registration to vote or for voting;

Still, Boundary Road, Buzz Bakery, California Tortilla, The Coffee Bar, Commissary, Kangaroo Boxing Club and Red Velvet Cupcakery are offering discounts today to people with stickers proclaiming they are voters, as Young & Hungry reports. One way to get around this, as Pound showed, it to offer discounts to all people wearing stickers.

Filed Under: dcision14, election day deals,