Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley who was instrumental in "stealing" the 1960 election from Nixon. Bill Daley is also brother to the current Chicago Mayor, Richard Daley, Jr.
In the aftermath of 1960 virtual non-election, investigators were alarmed by the fact that on election eve the Republicans were leading in Illinois but Daley’s operatives were withholding the results of a large number of precincts for some worrisome reason.
Then, when Kennedy was just four electoral votes shy of winning the presidency, all of the missing Chicago precincts mysteriously reported at the same time, turning the tide in favor of Kennedy.
There were 68 million votes cast in the 1960 election. The margin between the Republicans and the Democrats (Nixon and Kennedy) was a trifling 113,000 (less than 2/10 of one percent!) in favor of Kennedy.
A subsequent investigation of vote fraud in Illinois and Texas revealed the following:
Fannin County, Texas had only 4,895 registered voters. BUT 6,138 votes were cast, 75% of which went to Kennedy.
Angelina County, Texas: In one precinct, only 86 people voted yet the final tally was 147 for Kennedy, 24 for Nixon.
But Texas refused to conduct a recount. The Texas Election Board consisted entirely of Democrats, and the Board certified John Kennedy the winner in Texas.
Illinois: News reporters witnessed so much voter fraud by the Democrats that the Chicago Tribune stated "the election of November 8 was characterized by such gross and palpable fraud as to justify the conclusion that [Nixon] was deprived of victory." (As quoted by the Washington Post.)
The Republican National Committee filed a lawsuit challenging the Chicago results. Not coincidentally, the lawsuit was assigned to the courtroom of a judge known to be friendly to Daley and the Democratic party, Circuit Court Judge Thomas Kluczynski. After predictably dismissing the Republican suit, Kluczynski was rewarded by "President" John F. Kennedy with an appointment to the federal bench.
Thanks for looking that up.
I also remember that Nixon objected to a long fight over the nomination that would have looked much like Gore did vs Bush.
His reasoning was that the nation needed to be confident in it’s leadership or some such.
I didn’t see that mentioned in there, but it has been talked about over the years. I believe it to be true.
Check this out:
http://www.toledoblade.com/frontpage/2000/11/10/Nixon-said-no-to-recount-in-1960-outcome.html