Why is the amount of money raised an indicator of success in an election? Votes cannot be bought or more to the point, with a secret ballot, they cannot be gauranteed to stay bought. So what is the money so effectively used for? It seems to me the real answer is not regulation and prosecution of variance from regulation, but determining what is the underlying reason for the apparent truism that “the most money equals electoral success” and applying countermeasures, if possible, with less money and more smarts.