“On Honest Voting”, “Be as Big as Nixon”, “Won by Fraud”, and “We Need Your Help!” from the 1960 Door County Advocate
[November 17, 1960]
On Honest Voting
This letter I deem necessary. I cannot talk to the person who has mailed me a newspaper clipping because she didn’t choose to sign her name. And maybe that is good because this way the facts will be brought to all readers’ attention.
After hearing of the vote recount demand by GOP’s and Democrats, I became concerned. Not because of who had won or who had lost, but rather with HOW?
I hit upon an idea. And I begin to work out the particulars of my plan. I phoned over 25 people to unite, regardless of who they had voted for during the last election, as a non partisan group, to help this vote recount through financial aid. I told them it was not to help Nixon-Lodge but rather to enlighten the hearts and minds of the American people. That we do have free elections and that our votes do count.
One Kennedy fan told me flatly that she didn’t want to help and that she didn’t think any of the Kennedy backers would want to do this. Why should they? Their man had won. Now I ask you, is this the right attitude to take? “My man won so why should I be concerned as to how he won?”
The point of this letter is they so falsely proclaim to be the party of the people. Who is more concerned with his fellow man? This Kennedy fan or myself? My concern was for the free vote of Americans? Hers was for her man winning.
I would like to coin a phrase. It is not the people (Nixon-Kennedy) that are important. It is the principle (free American voting) that is our main concern.
You twist that statement if you can! For if we don’t uphold our principles what chance do we have?
And if this person to whom this letter is directed is any true example of those that elected Kennedy as our president, I shudder with fear of the next four years.
Truman, (although I don’t go along with him on everything he has said) has said, the voices of the losers are important.
And when those voices are 50% of the population of the USA all will hear us.
Don’t accuse me of being a die hard. I’m resigned to the fact that we lost the election. I only asked How?
P. R. SLAVIK
[November 22, 1960]
BE AS BIG AS NIXON
In a recent edition of the Advocate, a letter, questioning “How” Jack Kennedy won the presidential election, appeared. May I answer that query once and for all time, “he won the majority of electoral college vote.”?
The question should be not “How” but “Why.” The answer is obvious. He won because the Democratic platform and the man chosen for the presidency received the endorsement of people dissatisfied with the present administration and felt the need of a change.
One could not be audacious enough to presume that the personnel employed at poles were dishonest. This personnel is carefully chosen with representatives of each of the major parties being employed. Thousands of communities have not used machines to record votes and I do not believe anyone has the right to question the integrity of the personnel who counted and recorded votes.
There are manifold problems of vital importance which could well be studied answering “Why” the vote went as it did. The fact that one realtor in our city has fifty homes listed for sale, the line up signing up for unemployment, the exodus of people from our city in search of employment, the devaluation of our dollar and the inadequacies of Social Security, might well be studied. The cold war for the past eight years and the unfortunate U2 incident are, also, matters important in influencing the voting trends.
I never could understand why the two major parties could not be recognized locally. The non-partisan, independent and Democratic voters do have the right to choose a representative despite the antagonism of some people. Let’s stop the questioning “How” and study the important question “Why.”
Vice President Nixon conceded the election. That should end this controversy. No one underestimates his intelligence. He has the respect of the entire country. Why not be as big as he is?
FLORA JACOBS
[November 29, 1960]
WON BY FRAUD
I am not a “letter writer” but I do feel obliged to take exception to Flora Jacob’s letter in the Nov. 22 Advocate in which she asks us to “be as Big as Mr. Nixon.”
It is no less than ridiculous at this time to make the statement. “One could not be audacious enough to presume that the personnel employed at the polls were dishonest.” etc., etc. How naive, how really vacuate, how idealistic can one be? Come to Chicago, Flora Jacobs, or merely read the Chicago papers to become disillusioned and learn the sad, hard facts of life? The evidence piles up. The fraud is there. Votes were stolen in wholesale lots. Thousands of registered Chicago voters’ names mysteriously disappeared from the polling records! How would YOU like to go to the polls on a Presidential Election Day and be informed that you could not vote because your card had been “lost” in the election binder?
One cannot logically say, as she does, “The people, dissatisfied with the present administration, felt the need of a change.” Rubbish! What did “The people” really have to say about it? The close popular vote makes it obvious to those at all experienced in practical politics that the Big City bosses, not “The people” or the Electors, chose Mr. Kennedy. It is suggested that fraudulent voting, in Chicago alone, was enough to steal the electoral votes of Illinois from Mr. Nixon!
Flora Jacobs was right on one point. Mr. Nixon is certainly “Big.” In fact, he’s even more than that: He’s Great. It’s one thing to lose a fight fairly and squarely, but to lose it through obvious fraud and thievery must indeed be a bitter pill to have to swallow. This is not the time to ask the rest of us to be “good sports” and shut up. When ballot boxes have been stuffed and qualified citizens denied their right to vote, we have been quiet and complacent too long!
MARIE MADDA
Door County
Summer Resident
[December 6, 1960]
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Senator Thruston B. Morton, Republican National Chairman has announced formation of a National Recount and Fair Elections Committee with these purposes:
1. To demand an honest count of this election in every questionable area.
2. To investigate and track down the irregularities and fraud wherever they exist.
In making the announcement, Chairman Morton said: “Immediately after election day the Republican National committee received thousands of protests of irregularities in the election”
“We have had an opportunity to receive and assess their reports and I can say unequivocally that there have been shocking irregularities and frauds in this election which constitute a national disgrace.”
“The more we dig into this election the clearer it becomes that fraud was widespread. Every day that goes by the evidence mounts that the people did not get on honest count in many places.
“Now that we have organized the National Recount and fair Elections Committee, we will need funds for competent investigators, auditors and lawyers, and I appeal to everyone interested in preserving an honest ballot in America to send in a contribution for this purpose. I also ask once again for any one with information on vote stealing or other fraud to write to me.”
Enclose your contribution and mail to Chairman Morton.
HONORABLE THRUSTON B. MORTON, CHAIRMAN
NATIONAL RECOUNT AND FAIR ELECTIONS COMM.
1625 EYE STREET. N. W., WASHINGTON 6, D. C.
Signed: Mrs. Jerry Slavik
All four are courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
[The last item was published with a frame to show it is a paid advertisement.
Where the word “vacuate” is used, potentially the actual word used is different; the printing there is difficult to read.
Mrs. Jerry Slavik, whose maiden name was Patricia Ruth Reynolds, signed the first letter as P. R. Slavik. Her husband was Sturgeon Bay’s City Engineer. He had been a member of the Cherryland Vagabonds Motorcycle Club: https://doorcounty.substack.com/p/cherryland-vagabonds-long-gone-but ]
Election or districting-related posts
https://doorcounty.substack.com/t/election-or-districting-related
Articles by Flora Jacobs
https://doorcounty.substack.com/t/flora-jacobs