flinn@seismo.UUCP (E. A. Flinn) (04/29/84)
The following is condensed from an article by Howard Shuman in the April 29, 1984, Washington Post: Horsefeathers, Mr. Nixon Richard Nixon is up to his old tricks. In one of his interviews broadcast this month on CBS, he questioned the legitimacy of John F. Kennedy's 1960 election, said that "many objective observers" believe that he was the real winner; he played the role of injured by magnanimous victim. He claimed that he did not challenge the final results then because of the turmoil and delay it would have caused in installing a new president... If there had been a scintilla of evidence of fraud, the old gunfighter Richard Nixon, the Republican Justice Department, the Republican U.S. Attorney in Chicago, and the Republican state's attorney in Cook County would have pursued it avidly... The charges of fraud in Illinois are spurious. In an attempt to intimidate black voters, the Republicans [in Chicago in 1960] recruited several hundred white male suburbanites to go into the black precincts as poll watchers. They announced before the election that their purpose was to keep 100,000 ghost voters from casting ballots... [Under these circumstances] the chances for fraud were nil. But the suburban Republican poll watchers could never understand how those black precincts voted 85 to 90% Democratic. Obviously this was fraud. It was no surprise that after an extraordinarily close election, the Republican Party in Illinois, aided by Chicago's Republican newspapers and the Committee for Honest Elections [a front for the Cook County Republican Party] claimed that "the White House had been stolen" and said that their prediction had come true - the Democrats had stolen 100,000 votes. The facts and the evidence are entirely to the contrary. The original Kennedy margin in Illinois was a little more than 6,000 votes. All but 906 of 5199 precincts in Cook County had voting machines, where tampering or fraud was much more difficult than in the 'paper' ballot precincts, most of which were in the Republican Cook County suburban townships. At Republican insistence there was both an "official" recount of the voting machines in Chicago and a "discovery" recount of the paper ballot precincts to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to petition for a recount of the total vote. The official recount of the voting machines in Chicago showed a net gain of 312 votes for Nixon out of a total of 1,718,000 votes cast. The recount in the largely Republican paper ballot precincts and the final returns from largely Republican downstate areas increased the Kennedy margin from slightly more than 6,000 to a final count of 8,858. No Republican request was made for a recount of the votes of the entire state. Out of all the charges, allegations, and innuendoes, only two had any initial substance. One was that in the 50th Precinct of the Second Ward of Chicago, 82 votes were cast, although the registration lists showed only 22 qualified voters. That allegation of "ghost" voting was raised to monumental proportions by the Chicago papers, and still appears in literature about the 1960 election. In fact, 89 votes were cast in that precinct. An urban renewal project had destroyed the homes of most of the 189 registered voters between the time registration was closed (30 days before the election) and election day. The Chicago Board of Elections tracked down all 89 voters. Every one of them was registered. Sworn affidavits were collected from each voter that they either lived in the precinct, or came back to vote. The Chicago Daily News wrote that "...it would be hard to prove deliberate fraud in the precinct." The second incident involved a ballot box which, when opened for rechecking, had only unused and spoiled ballots in it. Fraud was alleged. What had happened was that after the ballots were counted, they were placed in two boxes. One box contained the votes cast; the other contained the spoiled and unused ballots. By mistake the box with the ballots was shipped to a warehouse. But [later] the ballots which were cast were found and counted. The count agreed precisely with the original report that had been sent o the election board. A "special" Republican state's attorney brought civil contempt proceedings against 677 persons in 133 precincts for election misconduct. All were dismissed. The outside, "downstate" judge who tried and dismissed the last of these cases told the special state's attorney that he "...couldn't convict the commonest cur on the street with this type of evidence." A detailed examination of the "evidence put forward by the Republican Party and Chicago newspapers to support the charges of fraud which they made" was conducted by three eminent University of Chicago political scientists. They concluded that "the charges that wholesale election fraud was perpetrated in Chicago were baseless and unsubstantiated." Joseph L. Bernd, then associate professor of political science at Southern Methodist University, reached similar conclusions. The State Electoral Board, required to make the final certification of the Illinois results was composed of four Republicans and one Democrat. Its chairman was Republican Gov. William Stratton, a Nixon supporter. On November 30, 1960, he said, "I want to remind you again that the decision we take on December 19th will depend on the type of evidence we get." On December 19, he and the other four members certified Kennedy's victory. Despite Nixon's assertion, no "objective observer" has ever produced any evidence that Kennedy's election was illegitimate because of "fraud" in Chicago in 1960. That is a myth. [Howard Shuman now teaches political science at the University of California at Santa Barbara.]
thor@ihuxw.UUCP (Mark Kohls ) (05/02/84)
+++ While large scale fraud - 100K votes - may be unlikely or impossible in Chicago, one must never assume that vote fraud is impossible in Chicago. While I confess to straining my memory a bit now, I think that about 100 cases from the Washington-Epton mayoral race are now under investigation*. Vote fraud is a fact of life in Chicago, and no matter what machines are used they are never tamper-proof. Furthermore, Chicago is back to using paper ballots (they are read by machine however). Remember what they say in Chicago- "Vote Early, Vote Often" Politics in this state is simply amazing. *heard on local news Mark Kohls ihuxw!thor
matt@oddjob.UChicago.UUCP (Matt Crawford) (05/03/84)
The Chicago quote was incomplete. The complete, but I hope obsolete form was: Vote early, vote often, vote daily! (Pappoon for president!) ___________________________________________________ Matt not Arpa: Crawford@ANL-MCS.ARPA Crawford insane UUCP: ihnp4!oddjob!matt
jdb@qubix.UUCP (Jeff Bulf) (05/04/84)
I was only of high-school age at the the time. The election that year was the
first I paid active attention to.
As I recall (anybody got sources?) the sequence of events went this way:
1. Nixon charges fraud in CHICAGO. Talk of re-counting the city.
2. Counter-demand from Demos: Re-count ENTIRE STATE.
3. Whole matter died away.
Interpretation as I remember it from the time:
Because of the way Illinois was districted at the time, it took four Chicago
votes to have the impact of a single downstate vote. The downstate vote in this
election had gone largely Republican, the Chicago vote largely Democratic.
If the entire state were re-counted, the Republicans would have had to come up
with four favorable changes in Chicago four every one that the Demos found
downstate.
Let's here it for the battle of the pots and kettles!
--
Dr Memory
...{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!decwrl!qubix!jdb