Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The drama behind President Kennedy’s 1960 election win: Some people still doubt its outcome
The Constitution Center ^ | 11/08/2013 | Scott Bomboy

Posted on 11/10/2013 11:05:54 AM PST by SeekAndFind

On November 8, 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected President of the United States in a bitter contest against the incumbent Vice President, Richard Nixon. It was one of the closest elections in American history, and some people still doubt its outcome.

The New York Times called the election for then-Senator Kennedy just before midnight. NBC News didn’t call the race until 7 a.m. the following morning. All night, the newly empowered national television networks had forecast that Kennedy was leading, but in a race that was too close to call.

In 1990, the late John Chancellor recalled the chaos at times at NBC, when the network was relying on new computer technology to decide the winner.

“I think it was about 2 in the morning Eastern time when we began to think Kennedy might pull it out, and then the computer, which was very cumbersome in those days, began to say ‘Kennedy wins, Kennedy wins,’” Chancellor told the Los Angeles Times.

“I found out later on it was after midnight Eastern time when the Nixon people began saying, ‘It looks pretty bad,’ and then the Kennedy people began to say, ‘Not so bad.’”

Kennedy’s rise in politics began at a young age. In 1946, he ran for the House of Representatives at the age of 29 and won. His older brother had been expected to be the family’s political standard bearer, but he was killed in action during World War II.

Kennedy was elected three times to the House and two times to the U.S. Senate before becoming president in 1961, and he had more national political experience than our two most recent presidents. Health problems did keep Kennedy from attending Congress for some periods.

The race between Kennedy and Nixon had been close all fall. The candidates were tied in a late August Gallup poll, and Kennedy took a three-point lead after his historic TV debate performances. But Nixon gained momentum heading into Election Day, and he cut Kennedy’s lead to one percentage point in a poll taken four days before the election.

Kennedy defeated Nixon when votes were finally counted in the Electoral College, by a margin of 303 to 219. But in the popular vote, Kennedy won by just 112,000 votes out of 68 million cast, or a margin on 0.2 percent.

So arguments persist to this day about vote-counting in two states, specifically Illinois (where Kennedy won by 9,000 votes) and Texas (where Kennedy won by 46,000 votes). If Nixon had won those two states, he would have defeated Kennedy by two votes in the Electoral College.

That fact wasn’t lost on Nixon’s supporters, who urged the candidate to contest the results. At the time, Kennedy was also leading in the critical state of California, which was Nixon’s home state. But a count of absentee ballots gave Nixon the state several weeks later, after he conceded it to Kennedy.

In Illinois, there were rampant rumors that Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley used his political machine to stuff the ballot box in Cook County. Democrats charged the GOP with similar tactics in southern Illinois. Down in Texas, there were similar claims about the influence of Kennedy’s running mate, Lyndon B. Johnson, over that state’s election.

On Wednesday afternoon, November 9, 1960, Nixon officially conceded the election to Kennedy. He told his friend, journalist Earl Mazo, that “our country cannot afford the agony of a constitutional crisis.” (Mazo had written a series of articles about voter fraud after the 1960 election, which he stopped at Nixon’s request.)

In later years, Nixon also claimed in an autobiography that widespread fraud happened in Illinois and Texas during the 1960 election.

However, despite Nixon’s requests and decisions to not ask for a recount, the Republican Party had other ideas. In 2000, historian David Greenberg recounted the GOP’s efforts to contest the election in an article for Slate.

Greenberg said it was Mazo who helped to publicize the idea that voter fraud cost Nixon the election, and that Republican officials pursued recounts and investigations in 11 states. In the end, Nixon wound up losing the state of Hawaii to Kennedy after the recounts.

But that doesn’t mean that Daley didn’t affect the outcome in Illinois.

“The GOP’s failure to prove fraud doesn’t mean, of course, that the election was clean. That question remains unsolved and unsolvable,” Greenberg said.

Another historian, Edmund Kallina, has conducted extensive research into a Chicago vote recount, and he concluded the discrepancies weren’t wide enough to decide the election.

In a 2010 interview, Kallina said in the long run, the close election changed politics by forcing parties to focus on the Electoral College, while fueling partisanship at the same time.

-- Scott Bomboy is the editor in chief of the National Constitution Center.


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: 1960election; kennedy; nixon
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-49 next last
I have always wondered how the results would have played out had Nixon acted like Al Gore...
1 posted on 11/10/2013 11:05:55 AM PST by SeekAndFind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Didn’t think there was anyone who did not doubt that outcome.


2 posted on 11/10/2013 11:07:17 AM PST by John W (Viva Cristo Rey!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Kennedy was selected, not elected?


3 posted on 11/10/2013 11:20:53 AM PST by skeeter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I was always under the impression that the height of Joe Kennedy’s manipulation was the West Virginia vote.


4 posted on 11/10/2013 11:21:03 AM PST by Cyman (We have to pass it to see what's in it= definition of stool sample)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I remember right before the election, Kennedy team sent out an out and out lie saying that Richard Nixon would close General Dynamics if he was elected POTUS. I was only 13 and saw so many kids whose parents working for GD crying.


5 posted on 11/10/2013 11:21:31 AM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
In Illinois, there were rampant rumors that Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley used his political machine to stuff the ballot box in Cook County. Democrats charged the GOP with similar tactics in southern Illinois. Down in Texas, there were similar claims about the influence of Kennedy’s running mate, Lyndon B. Johnson, over that state’s election.

Voter fraud, ballot stuffing, lying about hope and change. The dems have to resort to these tactics because their emotional appeals and vote buying cannot, alone, win elections.

6 posted on 11/10/2013 11:22:04 AM PST by Former Proud Canadian (Cruz/Palin 2016)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: skeeter

“Kennedy was selected, not elected?”

Yes, by the Mafia in Chicago. Gianconna thought he had himself a bought and paid for President. He turned out to be wrong once said President turned his A.G. brother loose on organized crime.


7 posted on 11/10/2013 11:24:28 AM PST by FAA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: FAA

Bobby Kennedy would have made a better president than Jack.

Did we ever find out why Sirhan Sirhan shot Bobby Kennedy? Maybe that is a book O’Reilly should have looked into.


8 posted on 11/10/2013 11:30:00 AM PST by Eva
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
The other story is that he didn't exactly win a majority of the popular vote either -- not for sure, anyway.

Alabama and Georgia voters had to vote for the electors separately, rather than as part of a slate committed to one candidate.

Different electors pledged to a candidate got different statewide vote totals, making it hard to come up with single figures for Kennedy and Nixon.

Plus, some of the Alabama Democratic electors were pledged to vote for Kennedy and others weren't.

Were those votes for Democrat electors cast for Kennedy or against him? It's not easy to say.

9 posted on 11/10/2013 11:32:56 AM PST by x
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Former Proud Canadian

Well, there had to have been some reason for Kennedy to select Johnson as his running mate because they hated each other.


10 posted on 11/10/2013 11:34:48 AM PST by Eva
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Eva

RE: Maybe that is a book O’Reilly should have looked into.

Another book entitled : KILLING KENNEDY?


11 posted on 11/10/2013 11:34:58 AM PST by SeekAndFind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Eva

Sirhan killed RFK b/c RFK supported arms sales to Israel. It was an act of arab terrorism.


12 posted on 11/10/2013 11:35:21 AM PST by Lou Budvis
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

It was the fraud that changed and ruined America.


13 posted on 11/10/2013 11:36:40 AM PST by allendale
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

How ‘bout, Killing the Other Kennedy?

I really don’t want another O’Reilly book, but I would like to see some analysis of why Sirhan, Sirhan did what he did.

Actually, I am not sure that O’Reilly’s book is the definitive book on the shooting of JFK. That theory about the errant shot by a Secret Service Agent in the car behind Kennedy sounds very possible.


14 posted on 11/10/2013 11:38:31 AM PST by Eva
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Eva

Maybe is would be better if we never heard from Bill O again. He words are not worth crap.


15 posted on 11/10/2013 11:39:11 AM PST by bmwcyle (People who do not study history are destine to believe really ignorant statements.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: skeeter

Kennedy was selected, not elected?

There was never any doubt about the election, JFK was neither selected or elected, daddy bought and paid for the presidency plain and simple. it was this election that made my parents change from democrat to Republican and now some fifty years later my Mom is still a republican as my Dad was to his dying day.


16 posted on 11/10/2013 11:39:22 AM PST by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind; null and void

nixon personally killed jfk to win in 68 how much more obvious can it be


17 posted on 11/10/2013 11:39:57 AM PST by bigheadfred
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lou Budvis

I thought that it had to be something like that, but I think that this would be a good time to re-visit the shooting of Bobby Kennedy and the motivation, as well as the treatment of the case.


18 posted on 11/10/2013 11:40:43 AM PST by Eva
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: allendale
I have a friend whose Grandfather was a bootlegger in Mass. Every year he would get drunk on November 23 to celebrate Kennedy's assignation.

Old Joes bootlegger pals killed one of his sons and a couple of close relatives. I can feel for him.

19 posted on 11/10/2013 11:46:00 AM PST by Little Bill (A)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
"Drama" is code for Joseph P. Kennedy's criminal activity.
20 posted on 11/10/2013 11:47:32 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Who knew that one day professional wrestling would be less fake than professional journalism?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-49 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson