My first chance to vote while living in the Chicago metropolitan area was in the 1960 presidential election that resulted in John F. Kennedy being elected president. Since I was in the army on election day, I did not vote.  After separation from the army and back in the Chicago land area, there was an article in a Chicago newspaper stating that voter fraud had been committed by Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley’s Democratic Party to give Kennedy the victory in 1960.

At that time, the City of Chicago was heavily Democratic and controlled by the Daley machine. His strength started at the precinct level with his precinct captains fixing traffic tickets and in general assisting the public when asked where they could use their political influence.  As a result of this precinct level public assistance, the public voted Democrat.

The Chicago suburbs generally voted Republican along with most of downstate Illinois.

How was the 1960 election stolen? It was really very simple.  As explained in the newspaper, on election day the Chicago Democrats delayed reporting their vote count until the Chicago suburbs and downstate Illinois had reported their vote counts.  When that was done, Daley knew how many votes it would take to secure the victory for Kennedy.  His party reported enough votes to give the Democrats a majority and the presidential victory.  HINDSIGHT SAYS BOTH NIXON AND EISENHOWER WERE WRONG NOT TO CONTEST THE ELECTION.

As a young man who was recently able to vote, I was dumbfounded to learn that the crooked politicians would have the audacity to steal a federal presidential election.

During the 1964 election, President Johnson painted Republican Barry Goldwater as a war monger. Johnson convinced the voters and badly defeated Goldwater in the election.  After re-election, he then proceeded to implement much of what Goldwater had proposed to deal with the Viet Nam war.  In the 2012 election, dead persons voted and in some districts there were more votes than possible voters.  These elections proved to me that politics is a dirty slimy endeavor.  Sadly, nothing has changed in the last 56 years.