How We Vote (Throwback)

Summary

Throughline: How We Vote (Throwback) – Detailed Summary

Hosted by Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei

Introduction

In the "How We Vote (Throwback)" episode of Throughline by NPR, hosts Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei, alongside historian Jill Lepore and historian Richard Carwardine, delve into the intricate history of the American voting system. From its colonial roots to the transformative changes during the Civil War, the episode explores how voting practices have evolved, influenced by societal norms, political parties, and technological advancements.

Colonial Voting Practices

The episode opens with a vivid portrayal of George Washington’s electioneering tactics in the colonial period of Virginia (00:28). Historian Jill Lepore describes how Washington purchased substantial quantities of alcohol to host convivial gatherings, aiming to secure votes through hospitality and subtle intimidation:

“George Washington purchased 46 gallons of beer, one hogshead, one barrel and ten bowls of rum punch...” (00:28)

Voice Voting and Public Ballots

Initially, voting in America was a public affair known as "voice voting" or viva voce (03:35). Voters would openly declare their choices in communal settings, a practice rife with potential intimidation:

“Mr. Blair, who do you vote for?” (02:13)

Historian Lepore emphasizes the communal and often rowdy nature of these gatherings, comparing them to modern tailgate parties (07:14). However, this transparency led to issues such as coercion, where influential figures could sway votes through social pressure and incentives.

Transition to Private Ballots

As the nation expanded, the complexities of public voting grew (04:11). Rund Abdelfatah points out that the Constitution did not address voting methods, leaving states to develop their own systems, which varied widely and lacked uniformity (04:44).

The rise of political parties in the late 18th century transformed voting dynamics. With the advent of cheap printing in the early 19th century, parties began distributing printed ballots to maximize their supporters' votes. Lepore notes how newspapers became partisan tools, distributing specific party ballots (11:17):

“Party tickets... flaming red or bright blue ballots, right?” (12:25)

This period saw increased violence and intimidation at polling places, exemplified by the tragic story of George Kyle in 1859, who lost his brother and his vote due to violent suppression tactics (14:04).

Economic Influence and Vote Selling

The Industrial Revolution exacerbated economic inequalities, leading to situations where impoverished voters might sell their votes for basic necessities like sandwiches (16:15). This period highlighted the deep-seated economic disparities influencing electoral integrity.

Civil War and Voting Rights

The Civil War era brought significant changes to voting practices. Richard Carwardine discusses the Emancipation Proclamation and its political ramifications (19:16):

“The fighting would only end when slavery ended...” (19:32)

Despite the 15th Amendment granting African American men the right to vote, systemic barriers persisted. Black soldiers in the Union army, constituting nearly 10% of the forces, were largely disenfranchised due to restrictive voting laws and intimidation (29:03).

The 1864 Election: Ballot or Bullet

The pivotal 1864 election, set against the backdrop of the Civil War, highlighted the struggle to maintain democratic processes amidst national turmoil. Lincoln’s administration recognized the strategic importance of allowing soldiers to vote, leading to the implementation of absentee and proxy voting methods (30:38). However, both Republican and Democratic parties accused each other of fraud and manipulation, casting shadows over the election's legitimacy (34:29).

Despite these challenges, Lincoln secured a decisive victory, demonstrating the resilience of American democracy even during the most turbulent times (37:04).

Post-War Voting Reforms and the Secret Ballot

Following the war, America grappled with voter suppression and corruption, particularly in the rapidly industrializing North and the struggling South. Jill Lepore recounts the notorious voter fraud orchestrated by political machines like Boss Tweed’s Tammany Hall in New York, where immigrants and the working class were exploited through repeated voting fraud (43:01).

The push for the secret ballot, known as the Australian ballot, emerged as a solution to curb such malpractices (45:20). This reform advocated for government-issued ballots, private voting booths, and standardized ballots listing all candidates. Despite its progressive intent to protect voters' privacy, the secret ballot was co-opted by wealthy elites to disenfranchise African Americans and the impoverished, effectively using it as a tool for voter suppression (46:17):

“A reform meant to protect those with the least amount of power was used by those in power to keep voters out of politics altogether.” (50:58)

Modern Implications and Reflections

The episode concludes by reflecting on the lasting impact of these historical voting practices on contemporary elections. Jill Lepore criticizes the lack of fundamental reimagining in the voting system since the adoption of the secret ballot, highlighting ongoing challenges with voting technology and accessibility (51:26). Additionally, Dr. Carol Anderson emphasizes the importance of collective voting for the public good, critiquing the modern perception of voting as a purely individual act (54:13).

Conclusion

"How We Vote (Throwback)" offers a comprehensive exploration of the American voting system's evolution, emphasizing how historical practices have shaped current electoral processes. From public declarations to the secret ballot, the episode underscores the ongoing tension between ensuring voter integrity and protecting individual rights, highlighting the enduring struggle to achieve a truly equitable democratic system.

Notable Quotes

• Historian Jill Lepore (00:28): “George Washington purchased 46 gallons of beer, one hogshead, one barrel and ten bowls of rum punch...”
• George Washington (23:01): “Do not mistake that the ballot is stronger than the bullet...”
• Historian Jill Lepore (46:52): “The secret ballot is adopted in a place like Massachusetts in order to disenfranchise the truly poor who can't read.”
• Dr. Carol Anderson (49:28): “Voting is about empowering the voices of this incredibly vibrant nation so that we get the policies that respect, honor, and support this incredibly vibrant nation.”

Key Takeaways

• Evolution of Voting Practices: From public voice voting to the secret ballot, American voting methods have continually adapted to societal changes and political pressures.
• Influence of Political Parties: The rise of political parties significantly impacted voting mechanisms, often leading to corruption and voter suppression.
• Economic and Racial Barriers: Economic disparities and racial discrimination have historically undermined the integrity of elections, challenges that persist today.
• Reform and Resistance: Voting reforms like the Australian ballot were double-edged, intended to protect voters but often exploited to disenfranchise marginalized groups.
• Ongoing Struggles: Modern voting issues, including technological failures and voter accessibility, echo historical challenges, emphasizing the need for continual vigilance and reform.

Final Thoughts

The episode serves as a poignant reminder of the complexities behind democratic participation, illustrating how historical contexts shape present-day electoral integrity. Throughline encourages listeners to recognize the importance of voting as both a personal right and a collective responsibility, urging ongoing efforts to refine and protect the democratic process.

Transcript

[Sponsor Voice]

This message comes from Progressive and its name your price tool. Say how much you want to pay for car insurance and they'll show coverage options within your budget. Visit progressive.com progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law.

[Historian]

Now let me tell you about what happened when George Washington was running for the House of Burgesses in Virginia. In the colonial period, 1757, George Washington purchased 46 gallons of beer, one hogshead, one barrel and ten bowls of rum punch, 35 gallons of wine, two gallons of cider and three and a half pints of brandy. This is something that he would do treating his neighbors at the time of the election, and they would then, he hoped, reciprocate by casting their vote for him. All the people would gather around at an electioneering ritual. They'd have fiddling, they might have a wrestling, they might have a little bit of dancing, and they very likely will have been eating barbecue, yelling, shouting, and I'm sure after they consumed copious quantities of beer and rumour and wine and cider and brandy, who knows what else they would have done. But they probably loosened up quite a bit. The traditional ritual was that each candidate stood on the platform and they awaited each voter to come up and announce for whom they would vote.

[George Washington]

Mr. Blair, who do you vote for?

[Voting Official]

Hugh west, your vote is appreciated.

[Jill Lepore]

Who do you vote for?

[Voting Official]

Mr. Buchanan?

[George Washington]

George Washington.

[Historian]

Voice Voting. Think about that. You can imagine if we all went out in November and announced in public our vote, nobody could say that the vote was stolen. The problem is that if you announce your vote publicly, you may be subject to intimidation. When a big landowner like George Washington offers you a rum toddy and a beef barbecue and maybe some corn pudding, and you've had a lovely time at his beautiful farm at Mount Vernon, treated by him and his lovely wife Martha. And now you're going to announce your preference. You're going to be sure that you cast a vote for George Washington. Is that intimidation? There's a certain subtle intimidation about it, and sometimes it wasn't so subtle.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

We've been experimenting with and arguing over how to cast our ballots from day one. And since those early days, the process has changed a lot.

[Voting Official]

And it all started with voice voting.

[Jill Lepore]

Viva voce is the Latin for that.

[Voting Official]

Viva vace, literally living voice, which you heard play out at the top, was one of the earliest forms of voting, where you basically shouted your vote from the rooftops in front of all your neighbors while fighting over a keg.

[Jill Lepore]

Because, remember, it's election day, it's a holiday There's a ton of drinking. Everybody's there. It's like a big, like tailgate party. Like, it's a big celebration of public.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

This is Jill Lepore.

[Jill Lepore]

I teach American history at Harvard and I am a staff writer for the New Yorker and I also host a podcast called the Last Archive.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Jill says as we grew from a small colony to a big independent nation, voice voting got kind of dicey.

[Jill Lepore]

If you have more people, it's going to be more complicated to be accurate and to be able to do a recount when everybody's no longer assembled.

[Voting Official]

And so began this ongoing tension filled debate over how we as Americans choose our representatives. And as our country expanded and expanded the right to vote, we've gone from drunken, sometimes dangerous parties in the town square to private booths behind a drawn curtain.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

And even though voting is treated as one of the key pillars of our democracy, how to actually do it wasn't written into the Constitution. There was no plan. The process of voting wasn't something the founding fathers thought was their problem to solve, which allowed voting to evolve for better and for worse. I'm Rund Abdelfatah.

[Voting Official]

I'm Ramtin Arab Loui.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Today on throughline from NPR, the history of how we vote.

[Richard Carwardine]

Hi, this is T.R.

[Voting Official]

Guering from Newton, Kansas. You're listening to one of the best.

[Jill Lepore]

Podcasts available, throughline from npr.

[Sponsor Voice]

This message comes from Charles Schwab. When it comes to managing your wealth, Schwab gives you more choices like full service, wealth management and advice when you need it. You can also invest on your own and trade on thinkorswim. Visit schwab.com to learn more.

This message comes from our sponsor, Grainger. This is the story of the 1. As a maintenance engineer, he hears things differently. To the untrained ear, everything on his shop floor might sound fine, but he can hear gears grinding or a belt slipping. So he steps in to fix the problem at hand before it gets out of hand. And he knows Granger's got the right product he needs to get the job done, which is music to his ears. Call click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. This message comes from Noom. Using psychology and biology to build personal meal plans to fit your lifestyle, taking into account dietary restrictions, medical issues and other personal needs. With daily lessons that are personalized to you and your goals. Noom's flexible program focuses on progress instead of perfection to help you build new habits for a healthier lifestyle. Sign up for your trial [e-mail] part one in public.

[Jill Lepore]

So a vote is a voice, right? You sound your voice to express a political opinion or to make a choice.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

The early days of voting were filled with lots of experiments. You could announce your choice, Viva Vace style, out loud for all to hear.

[Voting Official]

Or you could just show up to.

[Jill Lepore]

The town square and someone would be administering the election and would call out, if you vote for Smith, go to this side of the town common. If you vote for Jones, go to that side of the town common. And then someone would walk around and conduct the poll, which would mean they would count the tops of people's heads. That's what polling was, counting the tops of heads, counting heads. And then the next technological step up from that would be to use some device. And this is where the word ballot comes from. Some little ball that people could drop in a box, and then you'd hand. You'd have piles of dried corn kernels and dried beans, and then you'd pick which thing to drop into the box. So that's what a ballot is, right? Like, it's. It was just a thing that people would have around corn, beans, bullets, little balls, whatever, pebbles.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

But regardless of whether you used your voice, your head or a dried bean, your vote was public. It often had to be.

[Jill Lepore]

It was important politically that voting be open. So if you walked up to a desk where there's a pile of yellow corn and a pile of black beans, and you picked one out and plucked it in the box, anyone who was near could see you do that. I remember when I was a kid, it was always a thing that my father would always say how he voted. He was a very staunch Republican, and it was no surprise. But my mother, who was a registered independent, kept her vote to herself. And all of us kids would be always asking, who'd you vote for? Who'd you vote for? And she would say, my vote is secret. That is a fundamental American principle. Like, it's actually kind of not.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

In fact, the original American principle was the complete opposite. Basically, your vote should be known by the public because it should be for the public, the vast majority of whom had no say whatsoever.

[Jill Lepore]

Both men and women, the rich and the poor, people who were enslaved, people who are apprentices, people who are held in chattel slavery, people who are newly arrived. If you think about indigenous peoples who are living among the settlers, which is a significant number of people.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

And out of all those people who could actually vote, white men who own.

[Voting Official]

Property, most of whom could read, there's.

[Jill Lepore]

Almost universal white male literacy in New England, which Is an extraordinarily unusual thing anywhere in the world, which took us.

[Voting Official]

From corn and beans to paper.

[Jill Lepore]

If you have a scrap of paper, you can write down the name of the person you're voting for and the office, and then you can put that in the ballot box instead of a pebble or a corn or a bean or something.

[Voting Official]

These methods didn't replace each other. They just kind of piled on top of one another. So one colony moved to paper, While another held to their corner and beans and another stuck to their voices. And this patchy system is what the founders inherited After America became an independent nation. They looked at all these various methods happening all over the place and were like, yeah, cool, whatever.

[Jill Lepore]

The framers of the constitution were just not that concerned with ordinary voters who did not have a particularly big role in the federal government.

[Voting Official]

Remember, the president wasn't chosen by a popular vote, so the framers didn't really care how the public voted one way or another. They left that up to the states.

[Jill Lepore]

So it becomes a problem that there's a lack of uniformity Even from polling place to polling place within a state.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Partially because as each state was designing its own process, there was another system taking shape, One that the founders had actually hoped wouldn't take. Political parties.

[Jill Lepore]

So the party system is not anticipated by the constitution, but party system begins to emerge in 1796 and more squarely has come to seem inevitable by 1800. And so political parties began trying to think about how to make sure that they're maximizing the votes of their supporters.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

And they realized they could tap into one of the most exciting advances of the early 19th century. Printing. Cheap printing.

[Jill Lepore]

Printing presses have sped up, so the newspaper that costs a penny instead of 6 cents is a huge technological advance in the 1820s. Reading the newspaper is now affordable, and.

[Voting Official]

The more people who can afford to read the paper, the more people read, period.

[Jill Lepore]

And so political parties get the idea that they will. Instead of trying to rely on people writing down the names of the office holders, they will print ballots for their.

[Voting Official]

Entire party slate and put them in the newspaper.

[Jill Lepore]

Now, newspapers are partisan then. So you subscribe to the democratic newspaper in your city, you get your democratic ballot, you cut it out, and you bring it to the polling place.

[Voting Official]

This was all happening at a time when more and more white men could not only read, but vote. By the end of the 1820s, most states adopted universal white male suffrage, Meaning you didn't have to own land anymore. You didn't even need any money. You just needed to be a white guy. Who could get your hands on a party ticket.

[Jill Lepore]

People started calling them party tickets because they look like railroad tickets, right? And then you'd have to kind of poke holes in them. But, I mean, the party ticket is actually hilarious to me. For one thing, there were giant sheets of paper, these, you know, flaming red or bright blue ballots, right? That signaled your party loyalty.

[Voting Official]

This empowered the party system, and the more solidified the parties, the more splintered the public, which set off a whole new set of problems. For instance, imagine you live in a neighborhood full of mostly Democrats, but you're.

[Jill Lepore]

A Republican, and you try to go to vote, and you have this giant flaming red ticket that you're trying to get. Usually there's like a building with a window, you know, and you have to be outside and hand the ballot through the window. And so you hear, you come in to this basically blue square. You have this red ballot, and you have to get across the park with your red ballot and get it through that window. It became extremely dangerous to vote.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Party bosses acted like the mob. They hired henchmen to show up to the polls ready to fight.

[Jill Lepore]

It's called shoulder striking. The parties would hire guys to show up and then try to intimidate voters who are so obviously carrying minority party tickets from even getting to the ballot box. That's part of an election contest. The famous case that really kind of calls into question, how out of control has this gotten? Is the case in Baltimore when a guy who's a Democrat tries to go vote with his brother.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

The guy's name was George Kyle, a Democrat who lived in a neighborhood dominated by the opposition, the American party. On election day, November 2, 1859, George and his brother left for the polls just after 8am with a bundle of ballots tucked under their arms. When they walked up to the voting window, a man approached them and tried to snatch the ballots right out of their hands.

[Voting Official]

George dodged his attacker and held on tight to his ballots.

[Jill Lepore]

But then people start shooting at them. There's guns, there's knives. It's a mess. The guy's brother is killed.

[Voting Official]

Just as George noticed his brother lying dead on the ground. He was shot in the arm and hit with a flying brick. He scurried off and ran home as fast as he could to nurse his wounds. That day, George Kyle lost his brother and his vote.

[Jill Lepore]

This later an investigation. And the question that the investigation has to ask, could a man of ordinary courage have cast his ballot that day? So, you know, the implication then is that they were cowards. So things have, you know, clearly Gone awry. This is just a whole culture, like a blustery, masculine, swaggery culture of American politics. Like we see all the time that you have to be a gladiator to participate in politics that goes way back.

[Voting Official]

Violence and intimidation wreaked havoc on elections, especially for those voting in the minority. But this wasn't the only problem with the party ticket system run by corrupt party bosses. People soon realized that they could use their vote for something other than voting. They could use it to eat.

[Jill Lepore]

If you're really poor, it's a pretty good way to make money to just sell your vote, right? Like, you can go to the polling place without a ballot and ask two different sides, like, how much would you give me to vote? Your ticket versus the other ticket. And people, you know, sell their votes for a sandwich. This is, you know, industrial America. There's an incredibly, incredibly poor underclass, and it's the poverty of the electorate. It's the possibility that you could be so poor you would sell your vote for a sandwich. The acknowledgement of the vast income inequality and economic inequality that is the consequence of the industrial revolution will require a wholly new way of imagining the act of voting. That leads to a lot of new discussion about a way to protect Americans on election day.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Because the people in power were watching, watching their workers in the factories and watching them at the polls.

[Jill Lepore]

Like, let's say I own a factory and you are my employee and we both go to vote. And I want to vote for this guy who's going to reduce taxes on factory owners. Well, I employ you. And I'm going to say to you, you got to vote the way I vote or you're going to fire you, right? What are you going to do? You're obviously going to vote the way I tell you to vote, because I'm going to watch you vote and I can see which ballot you're going to cast. There's this new question right now. We have economic inequality in the electorate. Now what do we do?

[Rund Abdelfatah]

But that question would have to be put on hold. The voting fiasco was just one broken piece of an increasingly broken nation. A nation that by the mid 19th century was turning on itself over a different question, the question of slavery.

[Richard Carwardine]

The war begins. I mean, secession is met by Lincoln's determination to hold the Union together, to resolve the question of whether, as he put it, a constitutional republic, a democracy, a government of the people, can or cannot maintain its integrity against its own internal foes. I'm Richard Carwardine. I taught for a number of years in Oxford University. I'm the Rhodes Professor Emeritus of American History.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

More than a year into this bloody, costly war, President Abraham Lincoln made a bold proclamation.

[George Washington]

All persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state. The people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then thenceforward and forever free. And the executive government.

[Voting Official]

In this Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln and the Republicans spelled out new terms of peace. The fighting would only end when slavery ended, which made the Confederates furious.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Keep in mind the racial politics of the parties then weren't quite what they are today. The Republicans were the party of Lincoln and emancipation. The Democrats were the party of states rights and slavery.

[Voting Official]

Lincoln knew that emancipation was a politically risky move because before long he was going to be at the mercy of the ballot box.

[Richard Carwardine]

He's aware that by insisting on making emancipation a condition of peace negotiations with the Confederacy, he's giving political ammunition to the Democrats. The Democrats, the opposition, are saying you're deliberately protracting the war to secure abolition. You could get peace if only you were prepared to think about reuniting the country on the Constitution as it once was, not on what you want it to be. And Lincoln, he actually considers briefly, he thinks of abandoning emancipation as a basis for peace, but. But he decides it would be an ignominious surrender. He can't possibly yield on that if he said, and I quote, it would be worse than losing the presidential controversy.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Coming up, how this set the stage for an election year that would test the limits of American democracy and forever change how we vote.

[Voting Official]

Hi, my name is Sienna.

[Jill Lepore]

I'm from San Francisco and you're listening to Throughline from npr. I love your show.

[Voting Official]

Every episode podcast that I've listened to.

[Jill Lepore]

Has blown my mind. Keep doing what you're doing. Thank you.

[Sponsor Voice]

This message comes from sun and Ski Sports helping families make memories on the mountain this Black Friday. Save up to 50% on top brands for the outdoor adventurer in your life with an extra 10% off select items online from November 19 to December 2, visit your local sun and Ski Sports to shop exclusive in store offers like enter to win a two hundred dollar shopping spree or explore sunandski.com find yourself outside with sun and ski sports.

This message comes from Viking committed to exploring the world in comfort. Journey through the heart of Europe on an elegant Viking longship with thoughtful service, destination focused dining and cultural enrichment on board and on shore. And every Viking voyage is all inclusive with no children and no casinos. Discover [e-mail] this message comes from Progressive Insurance. You call the shots on what's in your podcast queue now. You can call them on your auto insurance too, with the name your price tool from Progressive. Tell Progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance and they'll show you coverage options within your budget. Get your quote [e-mail] progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law.

[Jill Lepore]

Part 2 the ballot or the bullet? The bullet. The bullet.

[George Washington]

Do not mistake that the ballot is stronger than the bullet. Therefore, let the legions of slavery use bullets. But let us wait patiently till November and fire ballots at them in return. And by that peaceful policy, I believe we shall ultimately win.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

It's January 1864, less than a year till election day, and the country has to sort out some tough questions before that day arrives.

[Richard Carwardine]

Questions of race, question of government power, question of the role of the army.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

About what the coming election should look like.

[Richard Carwardine]

Questions of what is legitimate opposition in.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Wartime and what the country stands for.

[Richard Carwardine]

There are deep ideological and cultural divides. On the one side, you've got the Democratic opposition, considering Lincoln and the administration and the federal army to be a tyrannical force willing to crush individual freedom in a pursuit of reunion and an unnatural emancipationist racial order. On the other hand, you've got Lincoln and the National Union Party pledging themselves to seeing the war right through to its conclusion. They're offering a vision of a reunified nation no longer stained by slavery. The country would, I suppose, true to the egalitarian principles of the Declaration of Independence, it would emerge from the war with a richer democracy.

[Voting Official]

Initially, things looked good for Lincoln and his party, the Republicans. They were winning on the battlefield, and the days of the Confederacy seemed numbered. They seemed to have the election in the bag. But as winter turned to spring, the Confederates began to push back hard, and the federal army faced some big losses.

[Richard Carwardine]

Horrendous losses in spots of wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor. Things are looking so bleak. In fact, Lincoln's party chairman comes to Lincoln and he says, you know, you're going to lose Illinois, you're going to lose Indiana, you're going to lose Pennsylvania. These are key states, and if you lose those three states, then inevitably you're going to lose the election overall. Confederates looking at this were quite sure that the weariness of the war in the north would lead to the election, a new president who would be willing to sue for peace.

[Voting Official]

And they hoped that the new president would be Democratic nominee Gen. George B.

[Richard Carwardine]

McClellan, who was, of course, a very well loved professional soldier.

[Voting Official]

McClellan had served under Lincoln, but As a candidate, his main position was that the war needed to end ASAP and the Confederate states needed to be reunited with the Union, emancipation be damned. In other words, there would be a.

[Richard Carwardine]

Dishonorable peace that would not see the end of slavery.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Meanwhile, heated political debates were happening in town squares on the home front and among soldiers on the war front.

[Richard Carwardine]

The soldiers and civilians are consumed by the sense that what happens in November will be of profound importance for the future of the nation.

[Voting Official]

I could never look you in the face. Should I be compelled to say that we could no longer govern ourselves, that this war was but a trifling experiment and we could not conquer our enemies? We can only fight. You can vote. Give us such men as Lincoln and Johnson, Grant and Sherman and we will fight as long as there remains a rebel in arms. Charlie, you will pardon me should I appear to moralize a little. I grow warm when I begin to write on the subject. You know my feelings without my saying a word. Vote right and we will do the fighting on the square.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

For many soldiers, abolition was the key issue in this election, whether they were for it or against it. Richard Carwedeen has a collection of letters that Union army soldiers sent home. He read some of them to us in his best American accent.

[Richard Carwardine]

One of these soldiers wrote, I hope to sink in hell if ever I have to draw my sword to fight for the Negroes. This was an army captain. Another said, if the Negroes are freed, what are we to do with them? He's worried about white unemployment, maybe riots, rebellion even.

[Voting Official]

But this was the minority opinion. Most soldiers in the Union or federal army leaned Republican, which, remember, was Lincoln's anti slavery party. And that was partly a reflection of where these soldiers came from. Many were from places where having a voice wasn't a given. And they came to the US Hoping that right was guaranteed.

[Richard Carwardine]

When you look at the makeup of the federal armies, you'll see that there are significant numbers of immigrant troops, of troops that have been recruited indeed from Europe, certainly Irish and German troops who understand, understand that they have come to a country that offers something different. And if you allow their Confederacy to succeed, you are ending what Lincoln called the last best hope of earth. But it's what they understand to be the last best hope of earth too.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

The last best hope of earth. That promise of freedom, of representation for all, which might chart a new path for the world.

[Voting Official]

It's also important to note that nearly 10% of the federal army were black soldiers.

[Richard Carwardine]

I could quote you a letter from a black soldier serving in the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry. He describes mcclellan and the democrats, and I quote, as ever, the chief instruments in giving aid and assistance to the.

[Jill Lepore]

Common enemy of the country, Inaugurators of.

[Voting Official]

This bloody conflict on the rightful domains of freedom.

[Jill Lepore]

Is this the people's candidate, mcclellan, the.

[Voting Official]

Secret advocate of dissension, disloyalty, treason, and the ardent lover of human slavery.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

But here's the thing. Regardless of where soldiers fell politically, most of them shared one important thing in common. They couldn't vote.

[Richard Carwardine]

There's only one State in 1861 when the war starts that has actually granted soldiers the right of voting in the field of absentee voting. And both republicans and democrats are afraid that if the vote is extended to soldiers in the field, this could be a recipe for fraud and for giving political advantage to the other side. So it took time for the powers that be in the united states to come to see that it was a legitimate claim on the part of soldiers that they should be allowed to vote. When you've got a million men in arms in the union army, by the high point of the war, this is a huge proportion of the voting public that you're disfranchising Unless you make special arrangements for them.

[Voting Official]

As the war went on, pressure was building to give soldiers the right to vote.

[Richard Carwardine]

Those pressures come overwhelmingly from the republicans.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Why them?

[Richard Carwardine]

Lincoln and the republicans become aware of just what kind of loyalty they have within the federal forces, which meant if.

[Voting Official]

They gave soldiers the vote, it would likely help them win the election. So lincoln tried to make some special arrangements.

[Richard Carwardine]

He wrote to his general saying, it would please me if you would allow the soldiers to return for the fall elections.

[Voting Official]

There is a prospect of our being granted the privilege of coming home to.

[Jill Lepore]

Vote in the state.

[Voting Official]

Should this be true, there will no doubt be some joyful greetings in the old sucker state, Even though our stay should be short. But the reality was, most soldiers weren't going to be able to get furloughs to go home and vote. After all, it was the middle of a war, and there was only so much the federal government could do.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

So, as always, it fell to the states to decide if and how those soldiers would vote.

[Richard Carwardine]

I mean, what had to happen was, of course, legal change, statutory change.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

States began passing laws to give soldiers the vote. Some instituted absentee voting, which is still around today.

[Richard Carwardine]

You allow the soldiers in the camps to submit a ballot into ballot boxes that were taken to the camps by state election commissioners. And then on polling day, the soldiers deposit their tickets under the supervision of the commanding officer and the Commissioners.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Other states instituted something called proxy voting.

[Richard Carwardine]

Where you allow someone that you designate to cast your vote for you in your home precinct.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Here's how it worked. Say a soldier from new york wanted to vote.

[Richard Carwardine]

He would enclose in an envelope his ballot, his ticket, along with a document that authorized his proxy to vote for him. The soldier would then seal that envelope, and he would sign it with an affidavit that he was an eligible New york voter, Serving in the federal army and unable to get back to vote on election day. He would then put that envelope inside another envelope marked soldiers vote and would send that by mail to his proxy back home. And then the authorized proxy would remove the inner envelope, but wouldn't open it and take it unopened on election day to the poll to be examined by the polling inspectors. And if they were satisfied, they would allow that envelope to be opened and the vote would be cast in the ballot box. It's very carefully set out as to what should be done, and it's designed, obviously, to protect against fraud, at least in theory.

[Voting Official]

But it's easy to see how that might not go. According according to plan, an imposter could pretend to be the proxy. A commanding officer might intimidate soldiers into voting for a certain person or keep them from mailing their ballots, not unlike what employers would do to workers on the home front. And the envelope marks soldiers vote could.

[Richard Carwardine]

Easily be opened and a different ballot be submitted inside.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Thing is, even in states where soldiers could vote, questions hung over these new ways of voting and raised concerns about the legitimacy of the election.

[Richard Carwardine]

Both sides claim malpractice and fraud. You have democrats claiming that the war department is delaying the delivery of soldiers votes back home. That where they're known to be mcclellan votes, they are being held up by the war department. Even claims that the ballots are being extensively altered by removing mcclellan's votes from the envelopes and substituting lincoln ballots, weighting the scales very powerfully in favor of the republicans and the administration.

[Voting Official]

The men who would vote the mcclellan ticket were kept here, and only a's men were sent to their states to vote. All of the mcclellan men were kept here. I suppose I might have gotten home if I would have said I would vote for for a. But never. I would sooner stay here for another year than to come home and vote for him.

[Richard Carwardine]

But the republicans, too, could point legitimately to the arrest of several democrats in Washington and Baltimore for forging mcclellan ballots designed to swing the vote in new york state. So, you know, so both Parties are at it, but it's the republicans who are able to present themselves most powerfully and most convincingly to the army, that they are the friends of the democratic rights of the soldiers.

[Voting Official]

I think that if the soldiers has not got anything to say of who shall be at the head of government.

[Richard Carwardine]

That no one has.

[Voting Official]

I do not know more than three. But what would vote for abe so as to fight treason with our votes.

[Sponsor Voice]

As well as our guns?

[Voting Official]

I cast the first vote I have ever cast for the election of lincoln. In doing so, I felt that I was doing my country as much service as I have ever done on the field of battle.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

November 8, 1864. Election Day.

[Richard Carwardine]

The day itself passed off peacefully enough, but there is this strong sense of tension, a sense of high excitement, Determination to be heard on the day, to stand up for your rights as voters, regardless of what your commanding officers might want or regardless of what the other party's campaigners might want.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

The votes were counted among the soldiers. Lincoln got three votes for every one McClellan got. Before long, it was clear that lincoln had won the election.

[Richard Carwardine]

Yes, there's fraud, yes, there's manipulation. Yes, there's partisanship, there's malpractice. But I think ultimately there was enough of authenticity and good practice in the absentee balloting in the war, the result itself not to have been a distortion.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

A few days later, Lincoln addressed the nation.

[George Washington]

The present rebellion brought our republic to a severe test. And a presidential election, occurring in regular course during the rebellion, added not a little to the strain.

[Richard Carwardine]

I mean, he knew that the electoral process in wartime had its shortcomings, but what it showed was just how deeply embedded the idea of representative government had become in the United states over the years since the revolution.

[George Washington]

The election, along with its incidental and undesirable strife, has done good, too. It has demonstrated that a people's government can sustain a national election in the midst of a great civil war. Until until now, it has not been known to the world that this was a possibility.

[Richard Carwardine]

The election of 1864 is, in my view, the most significant election in american history, the most significant for democracy in american history.

[Voting Official]

A democracy that, in the midst of a civil war, had managed to preserve its most fundamental pillar, voting, along with all the messiness and drama that came with it.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

And it was about to get even more complicated. On April 10, 1865, Lincoln stood before a cheering crowd of nearly 3,000 people gathered outside the white house. The war was over. The union had won.

[Jill Lepore]

Speech. Speech.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

They yelled. But Lincoln, who needed time to prepare, instead cued the Marine band to play a song.

[George Washington]

I have always thought Dixie, one of the best tunes I have ever heard.

[Voting Official]

Southern men, the thunders muttered, northern flags and south winds flutter to arms.

[George Washington]

Our adversaries over the way attempted to appropriate it, but I insisted yesterday that we fairly captured it.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

The next day, Lincoln returned with a carefully prepared speech.

[George Washington]

We meet this evening not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart.

[Voting Official]

These celebratory words soon made way for more serious ones. It was clear that Lincoln was uneasy. Yes, the war had been won. Yes, slavery had been abolished. But now what would the 3.9 million formerly enslaved people now become? Citizens with full rights, including the right to vote. And Lincoln basically answered yes. At least the educated men, the colored.

[George Washington]

Man, too, in seeing all united, for him is inspired with vigilance and energy and daring to the same end. Grant that he desires the elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by saving the already advanced steps toward it than by running backward over them?

[Voting Official]

This speech would be Lincoln's last. Just three days later, he was assassinated. But the question of black suffrage lived on. Coming up, how tensions over that question would lead to a reimagining of how we vote yet again. Hi, Throughline.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

This is Libby calling from Jerusalem, Israel. Your podcast is so wonderful.

[Jill Lepore]

Thank you so much.

[Richard Carwardine]

Bye.

[Sponsor Voice]

This message comes from Midi Health. If you're a woman over 40 dealing with hot flashes, insomnia, weight gain, or brain fog, you don't have to accept it as just another part of aging. The clinicians at Midi Health understand what you're experiencing and know how to help. Midi Health provides specialized care for perimenopause and menopause, covered by insurance. Book your Visit [e-mail] that's join M I D I.com Part 3.

[Voting Official]

Australia. When the war ended, the south was on its knees, politically and economically devastated. But the north was experiencing another boom. The Gilded Age in the late 19th century was an era of massive economic growth. And just like during the Industrial Revolution, lying beneath that thin veil of prosperity was a massive wealth gap. And just like before the war, those with the least amount of power were the biggest prey.

[Jill Lepore]

You know, we talk about this kind of fictitious voter fraud today, but in the 1870s and 1880s, there was an unbelievable amount of voter fraud. In big northern cities, party bosses would.

[Voting Official]

Bribe, sometimes even kidnap people and force them to vote for their party over and over again. They would literally dress someone up in a disguise so they could vote multiple times. They'd go in to vote wearing one thing, come out and Have a hat and jacket thrown on him and go back in and vote again. This happened all the time.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

The most infamous party boss of this era was William Tweed, AKA Boss Tweed, who ran New York City's democratic political machine, Tammany Hall. Tweed had such tight control on city politics that he and his cronies were known as the Tweed Ring. So, yeah, they were gangster. In 1868, a presidential election year, the Tweed ring co opted more than 50,000 illegal votes thanks to quote, repeat voters.

[Voting Official]

And time and time again it was the working class and often immigrants who were taken advantage of. They were the ones being thrown into a basement, hit over the head with a club, dressed up in a disguise and watched all the way to the ballot box. And they were sick of it. So they started more aggressively pushing back against their vote, being public to protect.

[Jill Lepore]

Themselves by doing what's called vest pocket voting. You could fold up your ballot as small as you could and stick it in your vest pocket and try, try to get to the ballot box without revealing to anybody what color your ballot was. But it was extraordinarily frowned upon really, as a truly cowardly thing to do.

[Voting Official]

Some states did try to intervene before the Civil War. Maine tried to get ballots to all be printed the same color. Massachusetts tried to require people to conceal their ballots in envelopes.

[Jill Lepore]

But this was so controversial to imagine that voters could or should hide their ballots. That that was repealed two years later on the argument that it really was just the duty of every citizen to vote as his fathers did, with an open ballot.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Referring to the patriarchy, of course, because men were still the only ones voting anyway. A movement towards a secret ballot was growing. Reformers found examples that had actually been passed in other parts of the world. And one place they found them was in a land down under.

[Jill Lepore]

The reform, which is known as the Australian ballot, of course, comes from Australia. There's a package of proposals all in one. Some really revolutionary ideas. The government should supply the ballots, not the parties, not the voters. The government will supply the ballots. There will be a single ballot with candidates from all parties listed on it. This is a hugely innovative idea. Not only that you will enter a polling place and you will be handed a ballot and then you will be guided into a booth where you will fill out that ballot. And this is where an X marks the box begins. This is a reform that comes from the same set of packages. And then you will turn in the ballot.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

In 1856, the Australian ballot, aka the secret ballot, became law in Australia. Soon after, England jumped on board and Parliament passed the Australian ballot too.

[Jill Lepore]

The argument in favor of adopting the Australian ballot, which includes secret voting, is not that voting is a private matter, that no one should be able to know how you vote. The idea is that there's so much wealth inequality due to industrialization that people are intimidated enough and poor enough to be selling their votes. And so that people can't political candidates are buying their way into political office, which is just patently clear.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Americans started to catch on one state at a time. In 1888, Massachusetts became the first to adopt the secret ballot.

[Jill Lepore]

And one of the ways that you can think about the reform is that it's both what we would call a progressive minded reform in that it is ensuring the fairness of elections and the ability of all people to participate politically. But it's also quite a reactionary reform. And if you track the places where it manages to succeed. Massachusetts is a state where a lot of wealthy political figures do not want the poor to vote. And if you think about that act of getting a printed ballot, which has all the different party nominees on the ballot, and then going into a booth to vote privately and secretly without being able to talk to anybody else, you have to be able to read. You have to be able to read. So the secret ballot is adopted in a place like Massachusetts in order to disenfranchise the truly poor who can't read.

[Voting Official]

While the secret ballot was supposedly adopted to protect the working class, it was immediately used against them.

[Jill Lepore]

So it is a progressive reform, but it enjoys support most among people who are trying to deny other people the vote. So for instance, the Democratic governor of New York, this guy named David Hill, who is a kind of party machine guy, continues to refuse to sign an Australian ballot bill because he knows this is he's going to lose his political support. He knows that a lot of his supporters can't read and they will no longer be able to vote.

[Voting Official]

So he vetoes this bill three times.

[Jill Lepore]

Even after 14 men carry into the floor the legislature a petition that weighs.

[Voting Official]

A half a ton, which eventually outweighed the governor's efforts to block what he saw as a de facto literacy test. So in 1890, New York passed the Australian ballot.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

While some politicians saw secret voting as a threat to their constituents, others saw it working in their favor. Especially in the South. By 1870, black men could vote. Thanks to the passage of the 15th Amendment.

[Dr. Carol Anderson]

The states shall not abridge the right to vote on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. So here you get the language of the right to vote.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

This is Dr. Carol Anderson, a professor, historian, and author of One Person no Vote. How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy.

[Dr. Carol Anderson]

So, Mississippi in 1890, African American men, poor African American men, and poor whites were actually beginning to join together politically because the robber barons were taking them to the cleaners. They were working, as they used to say back in the day, from cant to can't, and they had nothing to show for it. I mean, their labor was just being exploited something fierce. And so poor whites and poor blacks realized, oh, we're in this together. And so the legislature, the power in Mississippi, looked up and said, lord, we got to stop this thing. And what they came up with, because now you got a 15th amendment that says, you cannot say we don't want black people to vote. So they talked about cleaning up the election, removed, removing corruption from the ballot box, ensuring the integrity of our elections.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

With the Australian ballot.

[Dr. Carol Anderson]

But what it did was it removed African Americans by using the legacies of slavery, like poverty, like illiteracy, like citizenship, and using those legacies of slavery as the means to block African Americans from the ballot box.

[Jill Lepore]

So in an instant, adopting the Australian ballots completely disenfranchises black men. It immediately almost completely ends black voting in the former Confederate states.

[Voting Official]

A reform meant to protect those with the least amount of power was used by those in power to keep voters out of politics altogether. And that reform, the secret ballot passed in 1856 on the other side of the world, designed the modern American voting system. And the thing is, it's hardly changed since.

[Jill Lepore]

I mean, in my polling place, that's how I still vote, which Jill Lepore.

[Voting Official]

Thinks is pretty bonkers.

[Jill Lepore]

You know, we live in an entirely different political system that is unimaginable by anyone who set up rules for voting, not only in 1787 at the drafting of the Constitution, but in the 1880s during the adoption of the Australian ballot reform in states across the country, that there has been no wholesale reimagining of what election day is, what it should be, and how people vote is quite staggering to me.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Sure, there have been all different types of technological advancements, but that's been its own headache.

[Jill Lepore]

The use of a kind of patchwork of voting machines, from optical scanners to something that's closer to Internet voting, is a mess. They break down. They're not maintainable. Poll workers don't know how to use them, don't know how to fix them, don't know how to correct them for errors. They become obsolete really quickly. They're extremely expensive. All of the whiz Bangery of voting machines has proven to be largely a disaster for the proper working of democracy.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

And there's another shift that's happened over time, a more cultural shift. When voting went from public to private, it went from a rowdy holiday to a solitary errand.

[Jill Lepore]

I mean, I find it incredibly stirring and magnificent and tremendous. But it's not a super fun rowdy tailgate party. It's a very different kind of an act. Okay, it's less dangerous, but it's also less fun. It's very Victorian, right? The little. The little curtains, the little table. Let's go into the parlor, you know. So election day, then, overnight is not rowdy, right? It's constrained. It's quiet. You must be quiet outside the building, right? And that's enforced.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

And when it's that quiet and you're all alone in that little booth, it can be hard to remember who you're voting for. Not in terms of remembering the candidate's name or how to spell it, but actually remembering who your vote is for.

[Jill Lepore]

Secret voting has an unintended consequence, which is that it gives you the idea that your vote is just something private unto yourself, as opposed to a public commitment and a public statement that you make as citizen, showing everyone that you're thinking hard about what the best direction is for, you know, your town or your city or your community in whatever way or capacity. And our system really does rely on voters turning up and also casting ballots that don't reflect their own personal interests so much as they reflect their estimation of the best interests of the whole of the public.

[Dr. Carol Anderson]

The question of being in a society is understanding that when you have a stronger collective good, the society itself is stronger. When it's all about me, and I got mine, and the hell with you. When you have a society that is riven with that, you have things that really don't work. So to me, the question isn't this kind of. Is voting about sacrificing yourself? Voting is about empowering the voices of this incredibly vibrant nation so that we get the policies that respect, honor, and support this incredibly vibrant nation. It means being able to have a voice in the kinds of schools your children will have. It means having a voice in terms of the zoning laws that will determine whether a toxic waste dump is put near your house. It means having a say in the kinds of district attorneys that will wield the laws dealing with criminal justice. It means having a say and that having a say is threatening. And at the same time that having a say is foundational to the way that we understand the United States of America and democracy. That's the battle plane we're on.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

That's it for this week's show. I'm rocking.

[Voting Official]

I'm Ramtin Arablouei and you've been listening to Throughline from npr.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

This episode was produced by me and.

[Voting Official]

Me and Jamie York, Lawrence Wu, Laine.

[Jill Lepore]

Kaplan Levinson, Julie Kane, Victoria Whitley Berry, Barth Shah.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Fact checking for this episode was done by Kevin Voelkel.

[Voting Official]

Thanks to Andrew Robertson, history professor at the Graduate center at City University of New York, who you heard at the very beginning he told the story about George Washington getting everyone wasted and he was a big help making this episode happen.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

And thank you to Gabe Selby, Brian McCabe, Parth Shah, Lawrence Wu, J.C. howard, Jamie York, Travis Lux, Jesse Hardman, Alex Curley and Dominique Munoz for their voiceover work.

[Voting Official]

Thanks also to Beth Donovan and Anya Gundam.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Our music was composed by Ramtin and his band Drop Electric, which includes Naveed.

[Voting Official]

Marvi, Sho Fujiwara, Anya Mizani.

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Some of the fiddle music you heard at the beginning of the episode comes from a video made by Chester Simpson and is played by musicians Dave McNew, Al Keller, Susan Waller and Fern Hoffman.

[Voting Official]

If you have an idea or like something on the show, please Write [e-mail].

[Rund Abdelfatah]

Thanks for listening and don't forget to vote.

[Sponsor Voice]

This message comes from NPR sponsor Shopify, the global commerce platform that helps you sell and show up exactly the way you want to customize your online store to your style. Sign up for a $1 per month trial [e-mail] NPR support for NPR and the following message come from GiveWell. Over 100,000 donors have used GiveWell to donate more than $1 billion. Find out more or make a [e-mail] select how you heard about GiveWell by choosing podcast and enter NPR at checkout.

This message comes from Jackson Seek clarity in retirement [e-mail] Jackson is short for Jackson Financial, Inc. Jackson National Life Insurance Co. Lansing, Michigan and Jackson National Life Insurance Co. Of New York, Purchase, New York.