Here are some examples:

From this biography of John Connally (Democrat who later became a Republican)

In LBJ's pivotal 1948 Senate race against former governor Coke R. Stevenson,qv Connally, as LBJ's campaign manager, was publicly linked to the suspicious late report of 200 votes in Box 13 from Jim Wells County, which had provided LBJ's eighty-seven-vote margin of victory. Connally denied any tie to vote fraud, but acknowledged that he had learned a lesson in managing LBJ's unsuccessful 1941 race for the Senate, when Johnson's seemingly decisive 5,000-vote lead had been whittled away by late election returns from East Texas. LBJ lost the 1941 race by 1,311 votes. In 1948 Connally instructed South Texas campaign operatives to understate their early returns in the vote canvassing because, he claimed, "we had been bitten once. It would not happen again."

No story about vote fraud would be complete without reference to the Chicago Democratic Machine

Of course, the corruption potential of those voting machines extended outside the walls of City Hall. Back in the days when vote fraud was something to be bragged about, the machines were ready-made for overzealous precinct captains and ward heelers. It was not uncommon for law enforcement visitors to arrive unannounced before the first voter and find that some of the machines had, mysteriously, already recorded dozens of votes. That was the technological equivalent of ballot box stuffing during the paper ballot days. (Incidentally, the Chicago Election Board made a little money several years back by selling those old wooden ballot boxes imprinted with the city's name. Apparently, Chicago vote fraud items rank right up there with Al Capone memorabilia.)



As for tallying the vote on the machines, it was left to the honesty of election judges in each precinct to open the back, phone in the totals, then send the sealed results to City Hall for the "official" canvass days later.

Sometimes, the end-of-day tally didn't meet expectations. But in some cases, it exceeded them. One of the most-told City Hall Election Day stories is the one about the longtime precinct captain who found to his delight that at the end of the voting day, the machines in his precinct showed the opposition candidate had received no votes. This captain had delivered the legendary "Zero Precinct," the equivalent of a baseball perfect game or a 300 score in bowling — the culmination of his political years of trenchwork. But alas, the story goes, the Democratic ward committeeman was so distressed that such a perfect political act might attract the attention of nosy federal investigators he ordered the once-triumphant, now- deflated precinct captain back into the polling places to "steal" a few votes for the other side.

Of course, the corruption potential of those voting machines extended outside the walls of City Hall. Back in the days when vote fraud was something to be bragged about, the machines were ready-made for overzealous precinct captains and ward heelers. It was not uncommon for law enforcement visitors to arrive unannounced before the first voter and find that some of the machines had, mysteriously, already recorded dozens of votes. That was the technological equivalent of ballot box stuffing during the paper ballot days. (Incidentally, the Chicago Election Board made a little money several years back by selling those old wooden ballot boxes imprinted with the city's name. Apparently, Chicago vote fraud items rank right up there with Al Capone memorabilia.)

As for tallying the vote on the machines, it was left to the honesty of election judges in each precinct to open the back, phone in the totals, then send the sealed results to City Hall for the "official" canvass days later.

Sometimes, the end-of-day tally didn't meet expectations. But in some cases, it exceeded them. One of the most-told City Hall Election Day stories is the one about the longtime precinct captain who found to his delight that at the end of the voting day, the machines in his precinct showed the opposition candidate had received no votes. This captain had delivered the legendary "Zero Precinct," the equivalent of a baseball perfect game or a 300 score in bowling — the culmination of his political years of trenchwork. But alas, the story goes, the Democratic ward committeeman was so distressed that such a perfect political act might attract the attention of nosy federal investigators he ordered the once-triumphant, now- deflated precinct captain back into the polling places to "steal" a few votes for the other side.



Vote Fraud 2000 (contains some dead links)

The Northernmost Banana Republic

Days earlier, Wisconsin made national news when a local television station taped a major Democratic donor, Connie Milstein, distributing cigarettes to the homeless after driving them to the polls. Though Milstein had hosted a $25,000 per person fund-raiser for Al Gore at her posh Park Avenue apartment and was chairman of the Democratic National Committee's Major Supporters Committee, DNC head Joe Andrew had insisted that she was not a Democrat "heavy hitter." He also said that Milstein had come to Wisconsin on her own, a claim she cast some doubt on by telling a local TV reporter, on camera, "I am here representing the Gore and Lieberman campaign and I was asked to get out the vote in Wisconsin."

$12,000 paid to person in voter fraud probe

The South Dakota Democratic Party reportedly paid the person at the center of a voter fraud investigation more than $12,000 in the last three months.



The figure comes from Federal Election Commission records from July, August and September.

They show that Becky Red Earth-Villeda received 18 paychecks totaling $12,867. The reason given for the money were administrative or voter drives. One check for $3,500 was credited to travel expenses.

Democratic Party spokeswoman Sarah Feinberg said the contractors are paid by the number of voter registration cards and absentee ballots they collect.