American voter fraud has a lengthy history.
The Long History of American Voter Fraud
Like all forms of government, democracies consist entirely of sinners.
In fact, this universal human susceptibility to temptation explains why the United States has such a lengthy history of election integrity-related issues.
We were reminded of this on Wednesday when Superior Court Judge William Clark invalidated the results of a Sept. 12 Democratic mayoral primary in Bridgeport, Connecticut, due to “shocking” evidence of ballot stuffing.
Since 2020, of course, the establishment media has sounded a relentless drumbeat against so-called “election deniers.” Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump and more than a dozen co-defendants have faced criminal charges in Georgia, merely for seeking redress of election-related grievances in that state.
The fact remains, however, that Americans try to cheat in elections. They always have. And as long as power tempts them, they always will.
The Heritage Foundation, for instance, has compiled an extensive list of voter-fraud cases across the country. That list includes 127 cases since 2021. Nearly all resulted in criminal convictions.
In the months leading up to the 2022 midterm elections, the establishment media dutifully downplayed such evidence. NPR, for instance, made sure to smear 159 Trump-endorsed candidates as “election deniers.” Of course, it made no mention of Democrats’ repeated efforts to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2016 election.
NPR did offer a lame acknowledgment of questions surrounding the integrity of the 1960 presidential election. In that year, Democrat John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Republican Richard Nixon in a contest plagued by credible accusations of cheating, particularly in Chicago.
Even 1960, however, does not constitute a “long” history. For that, we must venture much further into the American past.
For instance, not many people know the story of the 1890 U.S. Census.
In a 1996 article published in the National Archives and Records Administration’s “Prologue” magazine, archivist Kellee Blake explained what happened to the records from that census and why they proved so controversial.
Blake called it a “complex tale” filled with “demands for recounts” and a process “mired in fraud and political intrigue.” Tammany Hall, New York City’s notorious Democratic political machine, reportedly paid well for inflated counts in certain districts. After all, more people meant more political power relative to others.
Furthermore, “New York State officials were accused of bolstering census numbers,” Blake wrote, “and the intense business competition between Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, resulted in no fewer than nineteen indictments against Minneapolis businessmen for allegedly adding more than 1,100 phony names to the census.”
As fate would have it, a 1921 fire destroyed many of those 1890 census records.
Still, memories of rampant fraud lingered, and that negative perception found its way into popular culture. In Caleb Carr’s 1994 novel, “The Alienist,” set in late 19th-century New York City, a serial child killer gained access to victims by working as a census-taker in immigrant neighborhoods.
Decades earlier, the federal government created a recipe for fraud when it left the question of slavery open to the people of the western territories. Emigrants to Kansas Territory tried to settle that question first, in some cases by whatever means necessary.
The Missouri Compromise of 1820 banned slavery in nearly all territories acquired from France in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. In 1854, however, Congress repealed that Compromise by passing the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Under the guise of promoting “democracy,” Democrats demanded that the people of those territories should vote on slavery.
At Lecompton, Kansas, in 1857, pro-slavery settlers used every manner of fraud to secure a pro-slavery state constitution. John Calhoun — not to be confused with the famous Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina — played a leading role.
The Kansas Historical Society described John Calhoun as a “notorious figure involved with election fraud related to the Lecompton Constitution.” Calhoun, in fact, “directed his clerk to bury fake ballots in a wooden box, thereby hiding them from free-state investigators.”
Democratic President James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, however, proceeded as if nothing fraudulent had occurred.
“I have received from J. Calhoun, esq., president of the late constitutional convention of Kansas, a copy, duly certified by himself, of the constitution framed by that body, with the expression of a hope that I would submit the same to the consideration of Congress ‘with the view of the admission of Kansas into the Union as an independent State,’” Buchanan wrote in an 1858 message to Congress.
Buchanan — a spineless nincompoop — wanted the Kansas question settled as quickly as possible. So he accepted Calhoun’s “certification.”
Congress then deliberated and rejected the Lecompton Constitution. Evidence of fraud proved too overwhelming. More than 1,600 Kansas ballots, for instance, featured “voter” names copied from the city directory of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Nonetheless, had Buchanan prevailed, voter fraud would have made Kansas a slave state.
Finally, one of the most brazen and surprising examples of attempted “election interference” dates to the early republic. In fact, it involved several Founding Fathers.
A spring 1800 election in New York City cost the Federalist Party dearly. This meant that a legislature favorable to Thomas Jefferson’s Republican Party likely would choose New York’s slate of presidential electors.
To forestall this catastrophe, Alexander Hamilton wrote to New York Governor and fellow Federalist John Jay with an idea, “namely the immediate calling together of the existing Legislature.”
“I am aware that there are weighty objections to the measure; but the reasons for it appear to me to outweigh the objections. And in times like these in which we live, it will not do to be overscrupulous,” Hamilton added.
Hamilton believed that Jefferson’s Republicans would undermine the Union and far worse.
“Tis a composition indeed of very incongruous materials but all tending to mischief — some of them to the overthrow of the Government by stripping it of its due energies others of them to a Revolution after the manner of Buonaparte,” Hamilton wrote of the Republicans.
Hamilton, of course, thought he had good reason to suggest interference in New York’s election. After all, he regarded his political opponents as potential insurrectionists.
Upon receiving Hamilton’s extraordinary letter, Jay made a note at the bottom of the page.
“Proposing a measure for party purposes wh. I think it wd. not become me to adopt,” the principled governor wrote.
In sum, government officials and private citizens alike have often succumbed to the temptations of voter fraud and election interference.
The post The Long History of American Voter Fraud appeared first on The Western Journal.
Why is it important to take voter fraud seriously and implement measures to protect the integrity of our elections
E most infamous examples of voter fraud in American history occurred during the presidential election of 1876. The race between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden was incredibly close, with both candidates claiming victory. As a result, several states sent competing slates of electors to Congress, and the country was on the brink of a constitutional crisis.
In the end, a compromise was reached that gave Hayes the presidency in exchange for the end of Reconstruction and the withdrawal of federal troops from the South. While the details of the compromise are complex and controversial, it is clear that voter fraud played a significant role in the disputed election.
In Florida, for example, it was widely reported that armed bands of Democrats patrolled the streets to intimidate Republican voters and prevent them from casting their ballots. In Louisiana, African American voters were systematically disenfranchised through a combination of violence and fraud. And in South Carolina, there were reports of widespread vote tampering and ballot stuffing.
These are just a few examples from a long history of American voter fraud. Throughout the years, politicians and their supporters have found ways to manipulate the democratic process in order to gain an advantage. From the 19th-century Tammany Hall machine in New York City to the modern-day scandals in places like Chicago and Philadelphia, voter fraud has been a recurring problem in American elections.
Despite the evidence, there are those who claim that voter fraud is a myth or that it is not a significant problem in our elections. These individuals often point to studies or investigations that have found relatively low numbers of prosecuted cases of voter fraud. However, this argument misses the point.
The reality is that voter fraud is difficult to detect and prosecute. It often goes unreported or unnoticed, and when it is discovered, it can be challenging to gather the evidence needed for a conviction. Furthermore, the fear of being labeled a conspiracy theorist or racist has silenced many individuals who have witnessed voter fraud firsthand.
In order to protect the integrity of our elections, we must take voter fraud seriously. This means implementing measures such as voter ID laws, ensuring that voter rolls are accurate and up to date, and increasing penalties for those who engage in fraudulent activity. It also means holding our politicians accountable and demanding transparency and fairness in our electoral processes.
As Americans, we have a responsibility to uphold the principles of democracy and ensure that every vote counts. By acknowledging and addressing the long history of voter fraud in our country, we can work towards a future where our elections are truly free and fair.
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