Chicanery, 1960 Part V

Unpledged and Faithless

In American electoral parlance, an “unpledged elector” is a person sent as an elector to the electoral college without pledging support for any particular presidential or vice presidential candidate. Presidential elections are indirect in the United States. The electors pledged to either candidate are voted for by the voters of each state, and then those electors vote for the president. In 1960, many Southern Democrats were in strict opposition to voting rights for African Americans, a stance not shared by their party’s candidate JFK. So segregationists plotted to influence the result of the election in their favor, however it turned out.

Alabama put up a mixed slate of electors, five loyal to Kennedy and six unpledged, free to vote for whoever they wanted. Mississippi and Louisiana put up two slates, one for Kennedy and one unpledged. Georgia governor Ernest Vandiver (who’d helped the democratic candidate secure MLK’s release in October) freed all twelve of the state’s electors from their pledge, hoping they would vote against Kennedy if given the chance. Ellis Arnall, the state’s governor before Vandiver called this move “utterly disgraceful”.

Ernest Vandiver of Georgia, 1918 - 2005

In total, fourteen unpledged Democratic electors won in the south and chose not to vote for Kennedy. The electors from Georgia were not apart of this coalition, since they ultimately decided to vote for the democratic candidate regardless of the independent status they’d been given. Organizers dubbed the movement the “Plan to Give the South a Partial Vote in the Affairs of the Nation”. It consisted of three parts, and a fourth final measure that would be put into action if they didn’t find any success with their first three tactics. The first, was to convince Kennedy to stop U.S. aide to Communist countries and support southern states rights to opt out of racial integration. If he refused, they’d try to get the ticket switched, electing Lyndon Johnson as president and Kennedy as vice president. If that failed, they were going to try to convince Republican electors to meet with them in Chicago, where they would select a president from a list of pre-approved choices. Among them, segregationists Sen. Harry Byrd of Virginia, Sen. Richard Russell of Georgia, Gov. Orval Faubus for Arkansas and Gov. Ross Barnett of Mississippi. And if that didn’t work, they’d try to get the election thrown to the House of Representatives.

With Kennedy’s clear majority in the electoral college, there was little chance of pressuring him to submit to their will. But, persistent as ever, the unpledged began writing to their Republican counterparts, urging them to switch their votes from Nixon to Sen. Byrd. Most refused, stating they felt an obligation to vote for the candidate chosen by their state. Still, a push to allow more electors to be allowed to vote freely began to gain traction in Texas, Virginia and Louisiana, among other states. One elector from South Carolina was particularly incensed by an offer from the “Flying Tigers Rights Party” to give him stock in a company from the Philippines if he allied himself with the southerners. Only Henry Irwin of Oklahoma was interested, opposed to Kennedy’s “socialist-labor” views. He would join the cause, sending out 218 telegrams to his colleagues pleading with them to follow his lead.

Hawaii, the 51st State

Honolulu, Hawaii in the 1950s

On November 22nd, attorney Robert Gray Dodge filed a recount petition in a Honolulu Circuit Court on behalf of the thirty members of the Democratic Party of Hawaii. Hawaii had officially become a state the previous year and 1960 was its first election as such. Initially, Kennedy had been declared the winner by 92 votes. Then it was given to Nixon instead, stating that he had actually won by 141 votes. There seemed to be errors with vote tabulation, but Dodge did not allege fraud, stating he was merely observing inconsistencies. Despite this, Republican Lt. Gov. James Kealoha, who at the time was serving as acting governor of the state, certified Nixon’s win on November 28th.

On March 18th 1959, President Eisenhower signed the Admission Act, officially admitting Hawaii as the 50th state in the union. The following year, 1960, would be their first presidential election in this capacity. A final pre-election day poll showed John F. Kennedy leading by 52.3%. Two days after it was over however, Nixon was 92 votes ahead. Less than a week later, in a direct reversal of what was happening in the other narrowly won states, attorney Robert Gray Dodge filed a recount petition in a Honolulu Circuit Court on behalf of the Democratic party of Hawaii. He did not claim fraud occurred, but stated he had observed inconsistencies in 198 of the 240 precincts- 1,283 votes appeared were unaccounted for. Republicans, including Lt. Governor James Kealoha agreed not to contest Dodge’s petition, although Kealohla, as acting Governor in the absence of actual Governor William F. Quinn, certified Nixon as the winner of the new state’s three electors on November 28th. He may have no authority to do otherwise. One of the electors, O.P. Soares, opposed the recount effort in Hawaii. Attorney General Shiro Kashiwa filed an answer to the assertions on November 30th, contending that the Democrat’s had failed to show any error or fraudulent tabulation.

Circuit Court Judge Ronald B. Jamieson, on December 2nd, ordered a recount in 37 of the state’s precincts. An objection from Republicans that the issue was “moot” because Kennedy had won the national election was shot down by Jamieson who said the issue was “who has been validity elected as Hawaii’s three electors and alternates.” By December 13th, 12 of the precincts had been recounted- and Kennedy’s final tally was increased by a single vote.

The biggest discrepancy was found the follow day, December 14th. In Manoa Valley, the original count was 520 votes for Nixon and 481 for Kennedy. When the ballots were recounted, Kennedy had beaten his opponent 480 to 452. Democrats pounced on this, claiming it was proof of the validity of their argument that more votes were tallied than originally cast. Republicans fought back, explaining that since the “safe harbor” deadline had passed on the 13th and only the Republican slate of electors had been certified, under the Electoral Count Act even if the recount flipped the state congress was required to presume the certified electors were validly appointed. Judge Jamieson rejected this, saying that congress would still be able to consider the results if Kennedy was proven to be the rightful winner. He also said “I think it is a healthy thing that in a democracy where there had been a cloud cast on the accuracy of the vote to have it cleared up.”

Nixon’s remaining margin was 61 votes. Democrats moved for a recount in the remaining precincts. Jamieson allowed this to take place. On December 18th, Kennedy had overlapped Nixon by 55 votes. The next day, specified in U.S. law as the day of the electoral college’s vote, the official electors (O.P. Soares, J. Howard Worrall and Gavien A. Bush) met at ‘Iolani Palace- the royal residence of the rulers of the Kingdom of Hawai’i since the 1800s- and cast their votes for Nixon. One minute later, an “unofficial” slate of democratic electors (Jennie Wilson, William Been and Delbert Metzger) cast their competing votes for Kennedy.

On December 20th, the next day, O.P. Soares asked Judge Jamieson to declare Hawaii’s presidential election invalid and contact the FBI. A specimen ballot had been found in a bag of rejected ballots during the recount effort in the eighth precinct of the fourth district. It was marked by a black lead pencil with a “X” for Kennedy and Congressman Daniel K. Inouye. Essentially, specimen ballots were fake ballots that a voter would put into the ballot box at the voting booth so they could leave with a real ballot. The real one would be marked to indicate who the person wanted to vote for, and then handed to another person, who would put it in the ballot box, take the real ballot they were given and hand that off to yet another person- a scheme of chain voting. In the percent where the specimen ballot had been found, JFK won by 207 votes to Nixon’s 187. Jamieson did not comply with Soares’s request.

On December 28th, the statewide recount reached it’s conclusion and Kennedy had won by 115 votes. Jamieson declared him the winner, and the Democratic slate of electors as the rightful slate for the state of Hawaii. Attorney General Kashiwa did not appeal. Governor William F. Quinn officially certified electors Wilson, Been and Metzger on January 4th, 1961.

A letter from the state government was rushed by air mail to Congress. Two days later, on January 6th, 1961, Vice President Richard Nixon arrived for the congressional joint session to tabulate the electoral votes and certify the results of the 1960 U.S. presidential election.

Works Cited

Allswang, J.M. (2019) Bosses, machines, and urban voters. Baltimore, MD, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, Project Muse. 

Binder, J.J. (2020) ‘DID THE CHICAGO OUTFIT ELECT JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENT?’, themobmuseum.org, 22 October. Available at: https://themobmuseum.org/blog/did-the-chicago-outfit-elect-john-f-kennedy-president/.

Bomboy, S. (2017) ‘The drama behind President Kennedy’s 1960 election win’, constitutioncenter.org, 7 November. Available at: https://constitutioncenter.org/amp/blog/the-drama-behind-president-kennedys-1960-election-win (Accessed: 01 October 2024). 

Carlson, P. (2000) ‘Another Race To the Finish’, The Washington Post, 17 November. 

Cheney, K. (2022) ‘See the 1960 Electoral College certificates that the false Trump electors say justify their gambit’, POLITICO, 7 February. 

Royko, M. (1988) Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago. New York: Plume. 

Shesol, J. (2022) ‘Did John F. Kennedy and the Democrats Steal the 1960 Election?’, New York Times, 18 January.