You know, Nick, once upon a time there were election day riots and party bosses buying votes, sometimes with two bucks, sometimes with booze or sandwich.

And people voting and then voting again but in disguise.

And there was fraud and corruption and intimidation.

And it sounds like it was a real mess, right?

It does indeed, Hannah.

The 19th century.

If you remember it, you weren't there.

I'm Hannah McCarthy.

I'm Nick Hapadija.

And this is Civics 101.

There are some really juicy stories about the supposed sham that was the 19th century election system.

You ever hear the one about Edgar Allan Poe being kidnapped, drugged, and forced to vote by a bunch of poll hustlers in an 1849 congressional election and then dying a few days later?

Wait, is that true?

Maybe.

Does it matter?

I feel like it probably does, yes.

Well, my point there, Nick, is that a juicy story is a useful story.

And there were, for sure, some gnarly things going on in that era of American elections.

And election reformers did their best to put a stop to that. There was the

rise of the secret ballot, for one thing, aka the Australian ballot, aka people don't know who you're

voting for, and that makes it a lot harder to mess with you. And it's basically useless to try and

buy your vote. That was the idea, right?

...