[tadita83]

I am a history teacher and I am trying to create a powerpoint about Political Machines at the turn of the century. I have run into a question that I know my students are going to ask, but I don't know how I'm going to answer it with certainty so I am asking for help! Bosses did favors for immigrants and in exchange immigrants agreed to vote who they were told to vote for. What happened to the immigrant if they just took the favor, but didn't vote for the boss' candidate?

[smearcase]

1. The immigrant would have to be a citizen to vote.
2. Assuming the immigrant was qualified to vote and did so at the old voting machines, how would anybody know who he/she voted for?
3. Further, assuming the immigrant didn't vote or voted for somebody else and the boss had a way of knowing, anything could have happened from nothing, to the immigrant losing his/her job, being roughed up, losing living quarters, paying back whatever favor had been given, and maybe even losing his/her life.

[tadita83]

Immigrants were many times illegally granted citizenship by the politician that was supported by the political machine. They were only granted that citizenship so that they COULD vote for the machines choice of candidate. So I'm guessing if the boss did find out about it then your number three would happen. My amendment to the question for anyone who knows because I certainly can't find it in my research. Was there anyway for the boss to know how the immigrant voted? I just don't see political machines staying in power as long as they did if there was no way of making sure they were doing as they were told. In other words I don't believe the immigrants would have stayed under the thumb unless they were forced to stay under the thumb.

[tadita83]

Found my answer thanks!!

"At the time, America didn't yet have privacy-protecting voting machines or official government ballots, so Tammany fixers could ensure that voters would cast ballots as promised. Vote riggers would simply give people pre-marked ballots and watch as they deposited them into the voting box" -How to Steal and Election by John Fund