[EL] Adams County and vote-buying

[Bill Sherman]

I think what makes the story so interesting is not the extent of the fraud – as you point out, that’s not unique – but the way that the judge dealt with it.

 

From: bzall at aol.com [mailto:bzall at aol.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2012 9:10 AM
To: lists at shermanleary.com; law-election at uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] Adams County and vote-buying

 

Pfft. Mists of history, indeed! Happened all the time in West Virginia more recently than that. Just a few short decades ago, all the campaigns had "budgets" for "last minute expenses" that were doled out by people from the "hollers" (valleys)  sitting behind the (open-backed) machines. The holler bosses went for the highest bidders, just like in Ohio in the Slate report you cited. They didn't care how often you voted, only that you did, and the right way. It was very open. None of this "vote once, get paid three times." If you voted right, you got $5 or whiskey, depending on the people running the voting place. They knew who you voted for. (This was also the campaign where we carried guns in the car, and there was a very real possibility of use, it being, after all, Hatfield/McCoy country.) 

Barnaby Zall 
Of Counsel 

Weinberg, Jacobs & Tolani, LLP 

10411 Motor City Drive, Suite 500

Bethesda, MD 20817

301-231-6943 (direct dial) 

bzall at aol.com 
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-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Sherman <lists at shermanleary.com>
To: 'law-election at UCI.edu' <law-election at uci.edu>
Sent: Wed, Oct 31, 2012 11:33 am
Subject: [EL] Adams County and vote-buying

Readers of this list will thoroughly enjoy Matthew J.X. Malady’s story in Slate today about vote-buying in Adams County, Ohio in the early 1900s.  My personal favorite anecdote: “One man confessed that, despite voting only once in the most recent election, he had accepted payment from different individuals by promising to vote three different ways on election day.”

 

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/history/2012/10/ohio_vote_scandal_the_county_where_buckeyes_sold_their_votes_to_the_highest.html

 

 

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