Vote pairing was used in the 2000 United States presidential election, where Al Gore supporters were concerned that votes for the left-leaning third-party candidate, Ralph Nader, could siphon off critical support for Al Gore in swing states like Florida.
Through these websites, a Nader supporter in swing state Florida could promise to vote for Gore, and in exchange, a Gore supporter in a strongly Democratic state like California would promise to vote for Nader.
However, word didn't spread fast enough and vote pairing had a negligible effect on the electorate.
[1][2][3] Several vote pairing sites have been created during the 2016 United States presidential election; among them are Trump Traders, the #NeverTrump app, Balanced Rebellion, VotePact, and MakeMineCount.
These vote pairing sites fall in three broad categories: Launched by Amit Kumar, the app seeks to give a voice to both Hillary and third-party voters.
Their comedy video "What Abe Lincoln Prophesied About Trump and Hillary" has over 35 million views and 750 thousand shares on Facebook as of November 2, 2016.
[29] Other criticisms of vote pairing consist of arguments against supporting third-parties in the first place.
[31][32] On August 6, 2007, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on a case, Porter v. Bowen, stemming from the California attorney general's shutdown of voteswap2000.com.
Vote-swapping, it said, is protected by the First Amendment, which state election laws can't supersede, and it is fundamentally different from buying or selling votes.