It sounds like a good deal to me.

Even if there were some real choice amongst the candidates their votes likely wouldn't count for much because of the way the system is set up. In the US the correalation between the actual will of the people and the government that ends up being elected is very weak compared to other more direct or proportional flavors of democracy.

You could probably make more of a difference with the money a few hundred iPods are worth than with the votes that they would buy. You likely would not even have to do something illegal like outright bribing an official. With legal campaign contributions and lobbying you can use your money without doing anything illegal.

The way it is now your single vote has as much chance of actually changing anything as spending money on a lottery ticket has to make you rich. Even if you actually by a million to one chance do make it count you will soon realize that winning doesn't make nearly as much difference as you thought it would and that chances are a few years later you are so deep in dept that you will have to declare bancrupticy despite having won.

Sometimes one might get the impression that the powers that be only continue to hold election because it allows the general population to fool themselves that they are in charge and keep them from rebelling. If the system really wanted the input of the masses on how to run the USA they would have set it up differently.