I remember when I was a little kid, my older sister and I would play the Bowling video game on the Atari 2600. At my young age, I didn’t understand the scoring system of bowling, and my devious sister would point out how if I got a strike, my score didn’t go up, but if I didn’t knock down all the pins, the score would immediately increase. Of course, this was due to strikes & spares waiting to add further pins from frames to come. I made the seemingly obvious correct choice to rack up those quick early points, and never understood how her score would rapidly climb later to beat me, as she racked up those strikes & spares I’d been taught to avoid.

That’s the anecdote that always comes to mind with vote buying... as the buyers play the role of gullible little brother and the sellers act as devious older sisters!

Play the long game. Go for strikes. Power up. Don’t go for the instant points. That’s my advice to all.