Deliver the Vote: A History of Election Fraud, an American Political Tradition-1742-2004

by Tracy Campbell

If elections are the lifeblood of democracy, then the United States is a sorely ailing body politic. From ballot stuffing and intimidating voters to suppressing turnout, buying votes, and manipulating returns, Deliver the Vote is an intensive examination of the corrupt underbelly of American politics. Drawing on records of hundreds of elections from the pre-colonial era through the 2004 election, historian Tracy Campbell reveals how a persistent culture of corruption has long thrived in local, state, and national elections. Among the public figures whose stories are central to his chronicle are Boss Tweed, William Randolph Hearst, Huey Long, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, and George W. Bush, as well as countless local and state politicians of all parties. Our elections are often held up as the model for the world's budding democracies to emulate. But after two of the most bitterly contested presidential elections in American history, this book shows how our democratic house has never been in proper order. Using a candid appraisal of our history as a guide, Deliver the Vote offers some surprising suggestions for a demoralized electorate to reclaim its democratic birthright.

Genres: History, American History, Politics, The United States Of America, Nonfiction

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Tracy Campbell is professor of history and codirector of the Wendell Ford Public Policy Research Center at the University of Kentucky.

Reviews

[Nathan Albright · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is quite likely that election fraud started before 1742, the earliest example cited in this thorough book and it certainly went beyond 2004, when this book ends. In reading this book I was struck by the fact that the author appears to have been naive that political fraud happened.  It is certainly hard to avoid thinking about the many ways that this occurs, and the author tries her best to be nonpartisan although it is clear that election fraud has involved a lot more than merely fights over who gets what office, but also questions of the use (and abuse) of debts for public expenditures as well (like the St. Louis waterfront in one of the book's more melancholy examples of how the Democrats entrenched themselves in office due to voter fraud and anti-business activities that drove out Republicans).  The author appears to have written this book in an attempt to encourage the reader to feel outraged about the way that the importance of elections has encouraged a wide variety of widespread voter fraud over the course of America's history that shows no sign of stopping but she does not appear to be sanguine about having it end for good.  And neither am I.

This book is almost 350 pages long apart from its lengthy endnotes.  After a discussion on the inclination to injustice that human beings have the first part of the book contains various chapters that argue that America's political corruption amounts to a failure of the democratic experiment (I), with chapters on colonial and early federal election fraud (1), the limits of popular sovereignty before the Civil War (2), the problems of the Reconstruction period (3), and the politics of the Guilded Age (4).  After that the author discusses the elusive struggle starting in the Progressive era to reclaim democracy (II), with chapters on how one steals elections in Kentucky (5), the corruption of the early 1900's (6), the Democratic corruption of St. Louis (7), and the consistency of corruption (8).  After that the author discusses the path to popular resignation (III), with chapters on majorities in the Jim Crow south (9), legalized bribery (10), election thieves (11), and the hidden time bomb of absentee voters and vote harvesting (12), along with a personal conclusion, after which the book ends with endnotes, a selected bibliography, acknowledgments, an index, and some information about the author.

Given the large number of ways that election fraud can occur, it is worthwhile to ponder the fact that even so noble a figure as George Washington thought it necessary to appeal to the thirst of his constituents by plying them with liquor as a way of showing that he knew how to play the political name, something not everyone (see James Madison) well understood.  One thing I think that this author does not seem to understand is that there are underlying structural reasons that have nothing to do with America to explain why voter fraud is so rampant here.  For one, voter fraud is rampant everywhere where voting takes place.  It is the human desire for power that makes fraud of all kinds such an easy option when it comes to gaining positions of power.  The sort of behavior that people engage in to seek power is different based on the sort of political system that a given state has, but the willingness to do anything for power is not something that varies a huge amount in different places.  If we as Americans tend to think that our political system is less fraudulent than that of others, that impression surely is not held by many currently.

[Charlene Mathe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very readable; an excellent digest of the our national election vulnerabilities to corruption and hijacking. Pops the image of our representative government; yet .... this is the best there is. Let's work on it! As Hugh Hewitt says in his book, "If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat."

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting look back at how election integrity has changed over America's history.

[Marcella · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was basically a laundry lists of stories and flavors of voter fraud and suppression. It was pretty hard to finish, mostly because I got sad every time I picked it up.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for those, like me, who feel they’re essentially aiding and abetting one miserable, bought-and-sold candidate over another when coerced into voting by friends and family. Despite the revelations of 2000, I never thought to utilize vote fraud in my attempts to sleep in on Super Tuesday. Now I know better.

Chock-full of stories revolving around vote buying, ballot box thievery, and complimentary whisky, many of Campbell’s examples logically take place in locales where voter intimidation is perhaps the only thing to do. The machinations in Eastern Kentucky and Anywhere, Louisiana seemingly mean little for the US as a whole, but as LBJ apparently got his political start due to missing ballot box #13 in some Texas border town, one can see the potential ramifications of provincial acts.

Having once resided next door the St Louis Gateway Arch, I found the author’s inclusion of that horrendous story most fascinating. Despite being a one-time neighbor and the subsequent author of a seventeen page research paper about the memorial (not published. Hell, it wasn’t even read by my professor it seems.), I knew nothing about the 1935 bond issue. I always figured something was amiss with the fact that a city district of forty blocks jammed with cast-iron structures can be ripped down in months to provide surface parking for decades. I suppose I always assumed it was the handiwork of our ever-so considerate Federal government. Not so – read the book.

It seemed, once the two chapter Florida debacle arises, that the author’s point is to highlight that situation as the dénouement of modern US vote fraud, but then he continues on to 2004. For all of the recent examples he necessarily relies heavily on newspaper coverage, which I always find a bit problematic. Nonetheless, this is a terrific story about how one’s vote doesn’t always count. Alas, I probably won’t sleep in next Super Tuesday, nor the next time I have the opportunity to vote for yet more property taxes (how the Hell, btw, does a leased vehicle require sales and property taxes?!?). The author’s primary recommendation is for all legitimate voters to turn out to hopefully counter the effects of foul play in such places BFE, West Virginia.

[Jackie]

The value of this book is not in how well it is written or formatted, it is in the information it shares. I will never look at elections the same way, and understand better why each party has so much distrust of the other. The history of fraud, intimidation, violence, etc., is staggering. I found the book to be repetitive in its style, with the author chronicling one incident after another. This led to a longer read time for me, as it became tedious. Still, worth the read for those interested in our history.

[Steven Tomcavage · Rating 2 out of 5]

As is the tendency with social science books, this book closely examines case after case after case of voter fraud in the history of the USA. It was interesting to see how far back the phenomenon went, but after a while the endless list of frauds became too monotonous. I had to read this for a class, otherwise I'm sure I would have put it down after the first few chapters when I got the gist of the book.

[Yann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting anecdotes about election fraud, but the author does a terrible job of making a cultural argument about a supposed culture of corruption in American politics.

[Cath Holden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read on the truth of American voting. It's always been corrupt