Little Pavel Goes to the Back of the Bus

Illinois Review ^ | August 5, 2010 A.D. | John F. Di Leo

[jfd1776]

... “We don’t think big enough in Chicago, Paully. Those New Orleans boys told us about what they call ‘the Morial method.’ I don’t think we can do it here, mind you, but they’ve sure got a slick operation down in the delta!”

Pavel offered Pockets a bagel and asked him to slow down. “I think you’re getting ahead of me, Pockets. How exactly does this New Orleans technique work?”

Pockets smiled. “You’re gonna like this, Paully. They tell me it was mastered by the old mayor of New Orleans, though it kinda sounds like it already an old established practice by his day. Let’s say you only have 45 workers. Now, we might divvy them up by putting three each in fifteen precincts; they could do a good job for us, right? Get a couple dozen more votes in each of those fifteen precincts when the other judges aren’t watching, right?”

“Sure, Pockets. That’s how we do it.” Pavel was learning all kinds of tricks in his summer, volunteering at headquarters.

“Well, Paully, that’s nothing. See, in New Orleans what they do is take a school bus and fill it chock full of patronage workers at 6:00am, then have a sharp guy from headquarters drive them around town all day, carrying marked pollsheets for as many precincts as they can squeeze into a day. Ten? Twenty? Thirty?” Pockets chuckled and munched his bagel. “In a big city, the sky’s the limit… as long as you keep your ‘volunteers’ well-nourished. In New Orleans some years, they tell me, the city pays for a fine box lunch… and they pay well too!”

“Pay?” Pavel asked. “They aren’t paying the voters to vote, are they?” ...

[jfd1776]

...another in a continuing series of fictional discussions between an old Chicago machine politician and his young summer intern, a boy named Pavel... the wise old crook teaching the next generation how votes are stolen all across the country. Today's story concerns the practices most common in New Orleans.

[fieldmarshaldj]

*IL Politics Ping*

[kittymyrib]

And those Chicago buses can even roll up to polling places in neighboring WI to help the Dems steal that state too. There’s plenty of graft to go around in Chicago...

[GizmosAndGadgets]

Hi John,
I’m enjoying your vote-fraud stories. I work election polls in Georgia, where I believe we have made it harder to create the kind of corruption you describe. However, as your stories indicate, even just a few individuals who collaborate to rig an election can be successful, at least on a very small scale. If you have a ping list, I would appreciate knowing when you post more of Pavel’s education.
Thanks!