Subject: Re: [EL] Question about federal prosecutions between 1900 and 1930 for election fraud and the like |
From: Robbin Stewart |
Date: 12/8/2010, 4:51 PM |
To: nathaniel persily <nate@persily.com>, Election Law <election-law@mailman.lls.edu> |
Not a prosecution, but a congressional hearing concerning JFK's grandfather. It is my understanding that the records of the proceedings were recently unsealed. Does anybody know if they are online, or otherwise available?
wikipedia:
In 1918 Tague was faced with a major challenge from ex Boston Mayor John F. Fitzgerald. Tague lost the 1918 primary election to John F. Fitzgerald, by 50 votes.[7] Tague contested his loss in the primary and appealed that loss to the election commissioners, but he lost that appeal and Fitzgerald was declared the nominee of the Democratic party.[8] Tague contested the election as a sticker and write in candidate and initially Tague narrowly lost the general election to Fitzgerald[9][10] by 238 votes[11]
Tague contested the election. On October 2, 1919, by a vote of 5 to 2, the House of Representatives elections committee voted to unseat Fitzgerald and to seat Teague.[12]
After the House committee canvassed over 1,300 votes Fitzgerald's plurality went down to 10 votes. After determining that one third of the votes in three precincts of Boston's Ward 5 were fraudulent the House of Representatives committee threw out the votes of those precincts. The committee determined that the election had been tainted by illegal registrations and fraud.[11] The committee determined that Tague won the election by 525 votes.[11]On October 23, 1918 the full House of Representatives unseated Fitzgerald and seated Teague.[13]
Does anyone know of examples of federal prosecutions for election fraud in the period between 1900 and 1930? Although I would be interested in prosecutions for any type of fraud, I am particularly interested in vote buying, ballot box stuffing, and tinkering with election results.
Nathaniel Persily
Charles Keller Beekman Professor of Law and
Political Science
Columbia Law School
Jerome Greene Hall
435 West 116th Street
New York, NY 10027
(917) 570-3223
nate@persily.com
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