I remember the 2000 elections – Bush won Florida, and the election, by 537 votes out of a bit over 6 million ballots cast. Admitted, Bush is Republican – but the percentage needed for chicanery is pretty small – his margin was less than a hundredth of a percentage point. (I still remember the Clinton impeachment – at that point, a handful of democrats voting to convict Bill would have given the presidency to Al Gore – and I suspect the incumbent’s advantage would have sent Bush home to Texas instead of the White House. You really do need to be careful about what you ask for.
To keep from controversy, let me look at a couple other Republican winners – Lauren Boebert, in 2022, beat Adam Frisch by 546 votes out of 300,000 ballots cast. Memory tells me that in 2020, a Republican won an Iowa congressional seat by a 6 vote margin. When things are close, a little bit of voter fraud goes a long way.
I started paying attention to elections back in 1960 – Kennedy v. Nixon. I was 10, and the thought of zombie-like voters leaving the comfort of Chicago’s cemeteries to vote for John F. Kennedy intrigued my sub-adolescent ghoulish imagination. That’s still an unproven allegation – but the Daly machine probably did produce some extra votes for JFK. Kennedy got 49.72% of the vote, Nixon 49.55%. In elections like 1964, where Johnson got 61.1% of the vote, if election chicanery occurred, it made no difference. Nixon v Kennedy was a squeaker – a few cooked ballots might have changed the results.
Fundamentally, close elections make voter fraud an issue. And I think that most politicians would rather have a victory with a few fraudulent votes tossed in than a squeaky-clean election where they lose by six votes. Just a hunch you understand, and if you’ve been a successful pol, and want to dispute my allegation, I’ll admit I don’t have the data to support my belief.
So we’re looking at 6,600 aliens registered to vote in New Jersey. Personally, I’m not a damn bit surprised. I remember when Spiro Agnew (New Jersey’s former governor) was vice-president back in 1973 – he copped a plea to tax evasion, was shown to be taking bribes, and I think his argument was something like, “This is just how we do things in New Jersey.” (Yes, I’m cherry-picking my political crooks from the Republican side – it’s safer that way)
If the election is close, a little cheating goes a long way. If the election isn’t close – like in California, the only reason to cheat would be to keep your hand in.
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