Vote

 

The wires are alive with talk of unfair elections, not only in the United States this coming November but yes, pretty loudly about the United States this coming November. One of the problems is the fact that election rigging is surprise surprise not a recent practice.

 Gore Vidal spoke of it not only in his novels but also in his book Imperial America (New York, Nation Books, 2004). He brings in a comic note with the anecdote about Eleanor Roosevelt’s shock at seeing people buying votes. Her eventually presidential husband Franklin tells her not to worry, “the Republicans are buying them, too.”

Not so funny of course is the actual practice of election rigging and its current electronic extensions. Already on the eve of the 2004 presidential election, Gore was recommending the use of paper ballots as opposed to machine counts (p. 37). This however may not prove as easy as it sounds. As a recent article in The Atlantic Monthly notes, “Ballots for the fall presidential contest cannot be printed until every party certifies its candidates.” And that is only one hurdle in the mess the magazine predicts (link to article below). By all means, vote. We must vote.

 As to the history of vote rigging, a short summary may be found at

https://www.historyextra.com/period/modern/a-brief-history-of-election-rigging-in-the-united-states/

  The Atlantic Monthly article:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/november-election-going-be-mess/614296/