Sunday, November 08, 2020

Kennedy-Nixon

During the Kennedy-Nixon election of 1960, Illinois was a closely contested swing state. I was 8, and I was in favor of Kennedy, as my parents were. 

Kennedy's electoral college victory was narrow, and dependent upon Illinois. There was some question, at the time, about the honesty of the elections in Illinois. My father suggested to me that the Democrats stole votes in Chicago, and that the Republicans stole votes Downstate, and that it roughly balanced out. I suspect this is correct. 

Normally, you can only steal so many votes, because there are a lot of safeguards in place. The relatively small volume of stolen votes only makes a difference when the election is close. 

Nixon conceded. There were people who thought that was a mistake. I don't know. 

What I remember puzzling me at the time, is that the Chicago Republican newspapers, the Tribune and the American, kept running headlines, maybe for a week, about various ballot audits finding additional votes for Nixon in the aftermath. 

So, even though Nixon conceded, audits went on. But the audits never added up to enough to get Nixon declared the winner of Illinois. 

I imagine that's what's going to happen with Trump in Pennsylvania. But, hey, run the audit, do the investigations. We have laws in place for all this. It was an unusual election, particularly with the heavier-than-usual mail-in voting. 

So, let the president sue. 
Let the courts do what they do. 
Let plenty of light be shined 
And we'll find what we can find.

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