Iowa Democrats now notorious for their failed Iowa caucus app, a computer reporting application. Their fiasco caught the attention of this old political reporter, candidate speechwriter, and political campaign communications professor.
Even read about a professor in Austin who tweeted that “paper ballots only way to hold an election.” Hah. She may not know how paper ballots have been manipulated in Texas Democrat primaries.
When Lyndon Johnson defeated Governor (Coke) Stevenson in a Senatorial runoff election, 1946, even LBJ’s biographer tells us some paper ballots were not counted until they knew how many votes LBJ needed. The most notorious return came from Duval County. Precinct 13 reported two days after the polls closed. LBJ won 200 to 2. The total Duval County recount of paper ballots favored Johnson 4,195 to 38.
Counted across the state, Lyndon won by 87 votes. That whopping majority led to his nickname ‘Landslide Lyndon.’
In a previous Valley election, some paper ballots were locked up when the polls closed. Courthouse caught fire that night. Paper ballots burned up.
I heard about another way they manipulated paper ballots. The Boss drove a truckload of migrant workers to the polling station. First worker off the truck went inside, received his paper ballot, went into the voting booth, pocketed the ballot then returned to the truck.
The Boss marked the ballot, gave it to the next migrant. He went inside and received a new ballot, which he pocketed in the voting booth. Dropped in the marked ballot. Then returned an unmarked ballot to the Boss. When votes were counted one ballot was missing, but the other twenty-some counted.
Years later, I heard embarrassed county election officials voted to install voting machines. No more paper ballots. Before the next general election, Democrats at their County Fair booth schooled future voters. On a small wooden board, ballot size, the Democrats hammered two nails, then bent them over. One nail-head was hammered into the wood. The other nail, you could move. That movable nail-head matched the ‘straight ticket’ side of the ballot for Democratic candidates.
On second thought, paper ballots may work just as well.
