The Fine Art of Voter Fraud By Rick Moran

It was very early morning on Wednesday November 9, 1960 and the mood in John F. Kennedy’s hotel suite was somber. Theodore H. White, whose Making of a President 1960 is the gold standard of campaign chronicles, describes the emotions in that room as whipsawing back and forth all night between a kind of giddy elation and premonitions of doom.

Early returns from the east coast had given Kennedy a huge lead in the popular and electoral vote. But by the time the polls closed in California at 11:00 PM EST, Nixon’s strength in middle America and the mountain west had brought him within striking distance of the Massachusetts Senator. States still in play included Texas and Illinois where the last great playoff between Democratic and Republican vote fraudsters was about to play out over one the longest nights in election history.
In any other context besides electing the leader of the Free World in extremely perilous times, this contest between the old-time political machines in the big cities and rural counties might have been seen as either high drama or low comedy depending on your point of view. As it was, it proved that both sides were in deadly earnest to come out on top and if it became necessary to bend, break, or mutilate the rules to do so, no stone would go unturned in “finding” enough votes for their candidate to prevail.

The Fine Art of Voter Fraud ...

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