A Vote for Sale: PPV in MMP is a time based performance that took place in the week leading up the the New Zealand Election 2008.

The work involved offering a vote in the NZ election for auction / sale on a variety of New Zealand based online trading platforms including Trademe, Gumtree Auckland, and the Trade & Exchange.

This activity did not produce a sale, at least partially due to the difficulties encountered in sustaining the listing for auction / sale within an online trading community long enough to complete a transaction. Listings were withdrawn by administrations rapidly. It must also be said that the moral resistance the idea of selling a vote provoked undoubtedly contributed to the listings being withdrawn.

This activity was by no means novel. In fact, when the vote was initially offered for sale, another auction was already underway on Trademe, where a vote had attracted a top bid of NZ$49 (This listing was subsequently withdrawn by Trademe when it was pointed out to the administration that it was prejudicial to withdraw one vote auction and not another). In the USA, USA Today reports that "It took authorities just 12 hours to hear about and stop a man's eBay offer to sell his vote. James Pengov, 36, of Elyria, said he was hoping to land enough money from selling his vote to pay medical bills."

In New Zealand, a country where $5000 to both major political parties buys a certain Mr. Liu citizenship, where millionaire Owen Glenn openly seeks and pays for privileges (NZOM 2008 or Honorary Consul post to Monaco for instance), and where political parties are falling over themselves bribing various sectors of New Zealand, private citizens selling votes seems entirely logical. Similarly in the USA where practically everything has become marketized and commodified, to the disastrous point where basic healthcare is a luxury, it also seems perfectly sensible and logical for a private citizen to sell her or his vote for whatever reason.

Artwork URL links to documentation of this time based project.