“We saved our original chads from when we voted and created a reliquary of the process.  We had a bubble gum cigar that said, “you win with Gore (which was made in Mexico),” and we had some relics from both the Democratic and Republican National conventions and we created a book about the whole process.  One of the things that was interesting in the process of that piece, on the final page, we had a picture of us casting our ballots at the polling booth and we had a poll official take a photograph of us which I think is also slightly illegal and so we made them culpable as well.”

- _ http://www.artscapemedia.com/podcasts/archives/2006/10/larry_and_debby.html

“The idea behind the piece is that money plays such a strong role in American politics that it seems kind of arbitrary to say that you can’t buy or sell a vote but yet you can use money to influence politicians.  So we went through this process.  We put the auction online and we eventually got shut down.  We got a lovely letter from ebay saying ‘we value you as a customer.’”

- Pulled into “PEACES” from San Diego Videographers, produced and directed by Lisa Franek

To produce “A Democratic Challenge to the Republic or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Vote,” the artists attempted to auction their Presidential votes on eBay for the 2000  General Election.  The auction was in protest of massive corporate and private contributions to political campaigns, and the resulting conflicts of interest that render democratic ideals impotent.  The artist’s book includes documentation surrounding the sale and the cancellation of the auction.

Box Contents:
Artist’s book
Press clip pass
Gold bag containing 2 chad removal devices
“Veterans for Bush/Cheney” sticker
Campaign button
Bag containing 4 chads from artists’ ballots
“You Win With Gore” bubble gum cigar
Box contents sheet.

© Larry and Debby Kline 2001

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