Reply #5: The better question is: Has there been an election where there was not? [View All]

[politicat]

We have a lackadaisical media, but the discussion is there. However, Mr. Pcat tells me that in parts of West Virginia, where he grew up, if you're not offered money, a job, a drink or something similar for your vote, it's insulting. Voter bribery is rampant and expected.

I have a friend from Chicago who shrugs at this mess and basically chalks it up to the export of best practices from the old Daley machine. Growing up in Arizona, the common cultural joke was every vote counts, but white, Mormon votes count twice. (This being the only way we could explain why a state that was 60% Hispanic and Native American kept electing rich, white, Mormon crooks.) I don't think these urban myths come into existence without at least some shred of truth.

Sinclair Lewis documents some voter fraud in Chicago in the early 20th century in The Jungle. There's massive documentation of fraud at about the same time in Kansas City, MO, as the city was run by a political machine. New York only got their issues cleaned up in the 30s. The South is one long story of voter intimidation and fraud.

I know that the Republicans have played dirty tricks in Colorado politics for at least 30 years. To voter fraud? I don't know. I do know that it was at one time common practice to send in bogus voter registration change of address cards to Democratic precincts. And it happened this year.

So.... I don't think anything's changed. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss... Boss Tweed.

Pcat