Dec 21, 2009
A few weeks ago, we asked our supporters to vote for MPP via Facebook in a holiday fundraising challenge sponsored by Chase Bank. Days before the first round of voting closed, it seemed like MPP had garnered enough votes to place in the top 100 and win $25,000, with the chance of winning $1 million.
But as you can read in this New York Times article, it appears that Chase intentionally excluded MPP and several other groups (including Students for Sensible Drug Policy) from its list of winners, presumably because they did not want to be associated with our cause.
Chase’s PR people have not admitted to any vote tinkering, even though the vote tallies were mysteriously removed several days before the contest deadline. But it is clear that Chase was being dishonest (at best) when it told voters on Facebook, “You Decide What Matters.”
Maybe someone should remind officials at Chase that ending marijuana prohibition is now—without a doubt—a mainstream issue. So why is Chase helping to censor a much-needed national debate?