All Those Places Rewarding Voters With Food Yesterday Broke the Law

Before all the results came out yesterday, you may have spotted a number of articles focused not on the candidates, but on where you could get free or discounted food or drinks for voting yesterday. Krispy Kreme gave out free donuts, Firehouse Subs gave out free drinks, Nestle Toll House Cafe provided free cookies -even the local deli I went to yesterday offered $2 pints of beer for those wearing "I voted stickers." But what you might not know is that rewarding people for voting is illegal, even if it's done in a totally non-partisan manner like the ones listed above. In fact, the only company I listed above that wouldn't be busted for their promotion was Krispy Kreme because they changed their promotion from giving a donut away to those who voted to giving it away to anyone who came in.

Sure the Federal Election Commission hasn't really gone after anyone for running these types of promotions, other than issuing a warning to some of the larger corporations, but the fact remains that they absolutely have the right to. Learn more about the law over at Eater.