Memories of A 1960 Chicago Poll Watcher\r\n \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCOUP WATCH: Memories of A 1960 Chicago Poll Watcher<\/b><\/p>
\r\n\r\n\r\nBy Fred Hilgart<\/b><\/p>
\r\n\r\n\r\nIn 1960 I was in grad school in Chicago. I was involved in community\r\nbuilding in Chicago's fifth ward led by Independent Councilman Leon DuPre.\r\nDuPre was a liberal in Mayor Daley's conservative town. We were fighting\r\nthe city on a number of different fronts when the Presidential election was\r\nheld.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nI went into a precinct in the eighth ward to be the republican poll watcher.\r\nMy job was to watch the counting of the paper ballots. Alderman DuPre\r\ninstructed us poll watcher in a number of different ways a ballot could be\r\nchallanged. One of these was that the x needed to be in the box. Well, I\r\nwas young and enthusiastic to work against the Daley man who was on the\r\nopposite side, a man by the name of Joe McMahone the County Clerk. <\/p>
\r\n\r\nI took\r\nmy job very seriously and challanged any ballot which didn't have a good\r\nsolid x right in the middle of the box. McMahone went along with me for\r\nawhile but then stopped to explain to me that these ballots were made by old\r\npeople some of whom could barely see but nevertheless made a extrodinary\r\neffort to cast their vote. He was correct as some of the x s were so wobbly\r\nthey could hardly be disinguished from other letters, Although at the time\r\nI was a real tiger seeking reform of Chicago Politics. McMahone went on to\r\npoint out that we need to acknowedge these votes where the intent was clear.\r\nI easily saw his arguement was valid. <\/p>
\r\n\r\nLater when I made my report to Dupre I told him what I had done. He agreed\r\nwith McMahone and stated that that regulation did not mean that votes with\r\nthe x outside the box should be rejected; just challanged to make sure the\r\nvoters intent was clear and the opposition wasn't throwing out votes that\r\nwere against them.. I saw absolutely no voter fraud going on and to my\r\nknowedge neither did any of the other DuPre poll watchers. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"You've heard all the stories & the endless inuendo about Chicago in 1960. But was you there, Charlie? The author of this article was, and he has something relevant to say about the ancient art of recognizing voter intent, as well as the fraud report you won't hear anywhere else.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2000\/11\/fred.htm","filesize":"2.1 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2000\/11\/4671.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}