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The great belief/myth is that Daly stole the election for Kennedy by manipulating the turnout in the Chicago area. I have read a few sources which indicate voter fraud if any was insignificant and that Kennedy won the election on his own. Nixon's operatives and the local papers looked into fraud but didn't find anything. Does anyone have anything to add?
The great belief/myth is that Daly stole the election for Kennedy by manipulating the turnout in the Chicago area. I have read a few sources which indicate voter fraud if any was insignificant and that Kennedy won the election on his own. Nixon's operatives and the local papers looked into fraud but didn't find anything. Does anyone have anything to add?
Nixon's associates launched investigations looking for votes in numerous states. They didn't find much. In Chicago, they found that 40% of precincts overcounted for Nixon (not fraud, apparently - mistakes happen) and the net total votes they scrounged up in the area was less than 1000 in favor of Nixon, far fewer than necessary to flip the state.
At any rate, take away the 27 Electoral College votes for Illinois from Kennedy's 303 and add it to Nixon's 219, and you still have Kennedy winning 276-246.
One state did flip. Hawaii. But in the other direction. Long called for Nixon, it was eventually determined in late December that Kennedy had won its 3 Electoral College votes.
It's worth noting that there wasn't one investigative body looking into these allegations. Election board after election board, state judge after state judge, federal judge after federal judge, in one state after another - all found evidence of no election-changing fraud. Nixon apparently believed that he'd been robbed. But then, he always thought someone was screwing him over.
At any rate, take away the 27 Electoral College votes for Illinois from Kennedy's 303 and add it to Nixon's 219, and you still have Kennedy winning 276-246.
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That the above trumps any concerns about voter fraud, hasn't been sufficient to snuff out the "stolen election" myth. Television, not Mayor Daley, was responsible for JFK's victory. 1960 was the first televised election and tv is an intimate medium, bringing politicians into people's living rooms. Kennedy was charming and polite to his host, he was as handsome as the stars people were used to seeing on the tube. Nixon came across as shifty and calculating, you counted the silverware after he left. He would have been cast as the heavy in any tv drama.
The great belief/myth is that Daly stole the election for Kennedy by manipulating the turnout in the Chicago area. I have read a few sources which indicate voter fraud if any was insignificant and that Kennedy won the election on his own. Nixon's operatives and the local papers looked into fraud but didn't find anything. Does anyone have anything to add?
I'll add this...
We only hear about "voter fraud" when Republicans lose.
They like to blame their shortcomings on the public.
That the above trumps any concerns about voter fraud, hasn't been sufficient to snuff out the "stolen election" myth. Television, not Mayor Daley, was responsible for JFK's victory. 1960 was the first televised election and tv is an intimate medium, bringing politicians into people's living rooms. Kennedy was charming and polite to his host, he was as handsome as the stars people were used to seeing on the tube. Nixon came across as shifty and calculating, you counted the silverware after he left. He would have been cast as the heavy in any tv drama.
Well, the usual rejoinder is something along the lines of "But LBJ stole Texas!". Which, along with Illinois, would be enough to give the election to Nixon.
It is true that some suspicious vote totals came in from the border area in favor of Kennedy. And it's true that there was probably some chicanery on behalf of Johnson earlier in his career that helped him win at least one primary, implying that LBJ wasn't above such things if he could get away with them. But it's also true that Kennedy carried Texas by a margin of 2% and 46,000+ votes. It's unlikely that fraud could account for so large a victory.
So, yeah, like you said... the claim isn't exactly fact-based.
(I'm sure someone will be along shortly to cite either an Oliver Stone film, some show on the History Channel, or just a YouTube video, as 'evidence' to the contrary... )
We only hear about "voter fraud" when Republicans lose.
They like to blame their shortcomings on the public.
When an Irish Catholic Democrat takes care of his friends it's corruption. When some Ivy League Wasp Republican takes care of his friends it's "good government".
"Vote early. Vote often."
--Alfonse Capone, well known Chicagoan
The rank and file of Al Qeda did not believe Bin Laden had really been killed----until they saw his name appear on the Cook County Voters' Registration List.
Al Gore? John Kerry? They claimed the same thing. Remember the 'hanging chad"?
It was inevitable. Someone was going to use this thread as an excuse to launch into a partisan whine about 2000. Congratulations - you beat the rest of the politically-obsessed whiners to the punch!
Quote:
Originally Posted by guidoLaMoto
"Vote early. Vote often."
--Alfonse Capone, well known Chicagoan
The rank and file of Al Qeda did not believe Bin Laden had really been killed----until they saw his name appear on the Cook County Voters' Registration List.
Well, it's very compelling to 'quote' some guy who been dead over a decade in 1960, and hadn't lived in Chicago for 30 years at that point, as evidence of Chicago fraud in that election. But that makes about as much as me saying, "Well, Watergate shows that Nixon wasn't above dirty tricks... so that proves Tricky Dick stole California!". Except it wouldn't. Because I wouldn't be presenting any... you know... evidence. And neither does 'quoting' Al Capone.
PS - 'Vote early and vote often' is attested to a date long before Capone was born.
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