800 Irish Laborers Disappear!

There is an interesting post at Seven Score and Ten about possible fraud in Louisiana during the 1860 presidential election. The fire-eating “Yanceyites” were apparently trying to to fake-out supporters of Bell, the candidate of the Constitutional Union party.

Similar concerns were expressed elsewhere in the country. In the November 1, 1860 issue of The New-York Times. the Washington correspondent is less concerned about fake ballots than with ballot stuffing. An excerpt:

The Republicans and Wide-Awakes of your City
should look out for an influx of squatters from all
quarters who will go to New-York to vote the Fusion
ticket. I am informed that some eight hundred Irish
patriots have suddenly disappeared from this city,
and there is every reason to believe that they have been
sent to New-York. Such a dearth of laborers at this
point was never known before. Look out for the most
unheard of frauds and perjuries. The Slavery propa-
gandists and their Northern menials are desperate,
and will scruple at no depth of corruption which may
be necessary to defeat LINCOLN in New-York. That
State is their last hope. They have the impudence to
say that the City may be carried by sixty thousand
majority, and I have no scruple in avowing the
shameless bribery by which the foul work is to be
accomplished.

During the first part of the 21st century there has been quite a lot of news about possible voting irregularities.

There were some allegations of voter fraud during this year’s election (2010). A woman in Nevada claimed that her ballot had been filled out ahead of time. The Nevada election official suggested that the issue was common but may more prevalent with senior citizens. That got my back up a bit – I had a problem voting this year, too. New York State recently went from a mechanical lever machine to a system in which the voter fills in circles (like standardized tests) on a ballot and then inserts the ballot into a reader. When I inserted my ballot Tuesday the reader spit it back out and it landed on the floor. My first thought was that Big Brother was dissatisfied with my choices. However, on the second try the ballot seemed to stay in the machine.

Also, I did not notice an influx of Irish laborers this year.

I’m not trying to downplay serious allegations of voting fraud, but I try to get a kick out of quirky things that happen to me.
I look forward to your comments. Thank you.