Vote Early and Vote Often!

This is going be a close election.  And it’s not hard to imagine a post-election day scenario where one candidate or the other decides something is awry and, suddenly, the nation is thrust into a morass or legal battles and worse.  That’s what is becoming the norm, yes?  

But the chaos of the last pair of elections isn’t all that new to our Republic.  We take great pride in our peaceful transition of power -- right up to the point that it isn’t.  

In reality, we’ve had a good number of contested presidential races in our history.  Whether we like it or not, the high ground has given way to the low road in more than one presidential election. 

1960 – Kennedy edges Nixon (with apologies to the late Gordon Lightfoot) 

Does anyone know where the love of law goes when the votes of November come early? 
Cook County, it’s said, gladly wakes up its dead, then they’re led to the polls by Mayor Daley 

For many Americans, the 1960 Presidential Election between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon has been the example most cited for alleged electoral irregularities.   

It was a close contest, but in the end, Kennedy captured the Electoral College 303 to 219.  However, results in Illinois and Texas raised more than one eyebrow.  

Illinois: Kennedy won Illinois by just over 9,000 votes. Allegations surfaced that Mayor Richard Daley's political machine in Chicago may have manipulated vote counts, particularly in Cook County, to favor Kennedy. 

Texas: Kennedy's margin over Nixon in Texas was approximately 46,000 votes. It’s not a stretch to believe Lyndon B. Johnson, Kennedy's running mate and pretty much the King of Texas at the time, may have used his influence to sway the election results in their favor. 

Nixon’s staff tried to persuade him to contest both states.  Illinois’ results, they argued, would be a snap to challenge, and they had enough information to feel they could reverse the results in Texas. 

But Nixon wouldn’t do it.  While he did believe he’d won both states, he said he wouldn’t put the nation through what he believed would be a terribly divisive ordeal.  

Forty years later, we discovered Nixon was right. 

Election of 2000 (Bush v. Gore): 

The vote count was close all through the night, but eventually the media began declaring George W. Bush the winner, even though Florida was still in flux.  Al Gore was reportedly ready to concede when his campaign chairman put the brakes on it.  Ironically, the man who told Gore to contest the results in Florida was none other than William Daley, the youngest son of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.   

Unlike Richard Nixon some four decades earlier, William Daley and Al Gore had no problem putting the nation through the wringer.  Following weeks of recounts and appeals to the United States Supreme Court, Bush eventually won Florida by 500 votes.  With Florida in hand, Bush captured the Electoral College 271 to 269.  

For years afterward, Gore routinely introduced himself as “the man who should be president.”  However, three different media organizations verified that Bush actually did win Florida. 
 
Election of 2016: 

While Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by nearly three million votes, Donald Trump won the Electoral College by a wide margin.    

The aftershocks are still felt today.  The litany of accusations and investigations manifest from Trump’s victory – from supposed Russian interference to alleged voter machine treachery – would eventually create a cottage industry for Democrats.  

For the last eight years, Democrats from inside the Beltway to state officials in New York and Georgia, have dedicated time, money, and resources to plague Donald Trump, and, many conservatives say, prevent him from being elected in November.   

It would be nice to think that in 68 days this will all come to an end and Americans and America can move on unburdened by the burdens of the past.  Heh heh.  Not likely. 

Now, before we think presidential elections ran smoothly until the 20th century, here are three that historians consider every bit as nasty as those we’ve seen in recent years. 

Election of 1824.  The original “pay to play?” 

By any measure, the 1824 presidential election was strange.  There were four candidates and they all belonged to the Democratic-Republican Party:  War hero Andrew Jackson; John Quincy Adams, son of our second president, John Adams; House Speaker Henry Clay; and Treasury Secretary William Crawford. The election became akin to a primary, but we love war heroes, so Jackson carried the popular vote and had the most electoral votes.  Most.  Not majority. 

So, it was game on, and Clay, out of the hunt in the votes and electors tally, saw an opportunity.  He wanted to be Secretary of State and offered his electoral votes initially to Jackson, whom he preferred.   

Jackson turned Clay down, but Adams didn’t.  Adams became president and named Clay Secretary of State.  Jackson cried foul and called Adams and Clay’s deal a “corrupt bargain.”  Today, we call it “pay to play.”      

Election of 1876 (Compromise of 1877)  The end of reconstruction. 

It doesn’t get much uglier.  One of America’s most disputed elections saw Republican Rutherford Hayes defeat Democrat Samuel Tilden by a single electoral vote.  But the Democrats controlled the House of Representatives and threatened to filibuster the certification, in essence, to grind government to a halt. 

The White House would be swell, but what Democrats really wanted was Republicans out of the south and an end to reconstruction.  If Hayes agreed to their terms, he could assume the helm.   

Learned students of public school names know immediately there is no Tilden High School in the country. Hayes agreed to the deal and moved into the Oval Office.  Republicans ended reconstruction, and Hayes ordered federal troops out of the south.   

Democrats took control of what would be called the “Solid South.”  Ultimately, Hayes’ decision shaped America’s political landscape for more than a century. 

Election of 1888.  Did electors cry “show me the money?” 

Republican Benjamin Harrison lost the popular vote to Democrat Grover Cleveland but won the Electoral College.  However, Harrison was plagued throughout his term by accusations he’d bribed electors, specifically those in Indiana and New York.   
 
It’s likely Harrison did buy his way into the White House.  Once there, Benjamin served his entire term, shattering his father’s time in office by almost four years.  William Henry Harrison, another war hero, caught a cold just three weeks after being sworn into office.  That cold became pneumonia, and Harrison died, serving only 42 days as president.