The Ninth Circuit Court determined in the 2007 case Porter v. Bowen that efforts in 2000 to swap votes were constitutionally protected by the First Amendment. Vote swapping (or “vote trading”) has been practiced in presidential elections in the US since 2000, most notably in 2016 and 2020 to counter Trump, in Canada, and in the UK, such as the Forward Democracy project.

In 2016, Republicans for Clinton 16 (R4C16) asked Republicans and 3rd Party voters to choose country over party, and was able to get >15,000 swing-state voters to trade votes for their Trump Traders platform.

We were additionally able to consult 1st Amendment lawyers on our specific implementation, and they confirmed that vote-swapping is legal and constitutionally protected.

Importantly, vote swapping involves no financial exchange. It’s more of a conversation and a pledge to one another. Both the swing state voter and the safe state voter agree to a trade as a political coalition-building strategy that advances their interests, which is similar to many other common political deals. See wikipedia on vote pairing. 

Yes. Increasing (even doubling) the number of protest votes in safe states can be a powerful reminder to politicians that voters are sick of the establishment and two-party system.

Vote swapping helps to tip the probabilities in favor of a Harris victory and Trump defeat. Due to the way the electoral college works, a massive national election could come down to a few thousand votes in 7 key swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. 

A similar “vote swap” method was used in 2000 and almost made the difference! If only another 0.6% of Ralph Nader’s voters in Florida had vote paired—if about 2,000 Nader supporters had paired instead of 1,400—Al Gore would have carried the election.

This initiative also encourages voter outreach between friends (and friends-of-friends), which is the most effective way to increase turnout among all get-out-the-vote tactics.

While there’s no way of legally enforcing a vote swap, there are many ways you and your swap buddy can build trust.

Using our match tool, we make it easy to share just the amount of info that you’d like to begin with and let you take it from there. When you make contact with your vote partner(s), perhaps let them know what are the most important policies to you, what you would like your vote to achieve, and why you have decided to swap your vote. If you want, you can have a call to talk and confirm your intentions. It’s not foolproof, but most people keep their word, especially when they know there’s a real person or people trusting them to do so.

Ultimately, there’s no hard verification mechanism. Like pretty much any non-trivial deal between two free people, there is always some risk of non-compliance. People voluntarily trust and make commitments to each other, and it is ultimately a leap of faith whether they follow through.

In past vote years, some people even let their partner(s) know when they're heading down to the polling station. In the spirit of transparency, you can request proof of voting via a photo of your respective "I voted" stickers. (But we do NOT recommend taking photos of ballots as that is not legal in some states.)

We would also argue that Harris fans have no incentive to break their commitment. A safe-state Harris voter gains almost nothing from voting for Harris in a state that Harris is going to win by 5 million votes anyway.

You are helping to increase trust at a time when trust is at an all time low. That’s something to celebrate!

We currently support and match voters in “swing states” with voters in “safe blue” states. We will NOT be matching voters from red states.

Swing states. Most states are lopsided in either the Blue or Red direction. But, a handful of states could go either way, and every vote matters for deciding whether they go in the Trump column or the not-Trump column. These are swing states. This year, they are Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Safe blue states. We also support voters in safe blue states. These are states that pollsters and election modelers believe are very likely to vote for Harris.

We will NOT be supporting voters in Red states. If you are in a red state and interested in supporting our efforts, please consider a) referring your swing-state and blue-state friends to swapyourvote.org and b) promoting voter turnout among your friends and c) voting and especially for downballot for initiatives and candidates you believe in.

Yes. Your voting intentions are sacred! We do not publish anything on your behalf. We only collect the minimum of data to allow us to help you find a swap or keep you updated on this project and will not share your data.

We are a group of dedicated volunteers who want to protect democracy and make big progressive wins in 2025 and beyond.

Thank you for entrusting us and we look forward to hearing from you with your swap stories and any questions.

A few words about our founding project leads:

Kipchoge Spencer voted for Nader in 2000 and then spent eight long years dealing with the consequences. He is the founder of the Landslide relational organizing voter app and its parent PAC. He also founded Xtracycle and is a lifelong climate advocate, currently working on ways to enable mass collaboration to get the more beautiful world most of us want.

Rae Abileah is a social change strategist, author, agile coach, and founder of CreateWell consultancy. She is a contributing author to anthologies including Beyond Tribal Loyalties: Personal Stories of Jewish Peace Activists. As a Jewish-American faith leader, she was raised with a vigilance against rising fascism, and can’t stand by witnessing the ongoing starvation and death of children in Gaza. She wanted to find a middle path that would be both strategic and connective: vote swapping.

Andrew Boyd is a long-time creative campaigner, co-founder of Beautiful Trouble and Climate Clock, and the author of "I Want a Better Catastrophe".

This project receives funding from Landslide PAC.

If you’ve voted, please do not sign up to swap, as that wouldn’t be fair. The point of swapping is to generate “new” votes for each participant’s desired outcome. If you’ve voted, the best way to participate is to share the word with people who haven’t voted yet.

Please visit our complete FAQ.