Politricks

Now is the season when precinct workers are trained to become watchers at the polls. In Manhattan, last week, an oldtime ballot-fixer explained some of his oldtime tricks, including the following: Taking the election inspectors on a party the night before, and keeping them there.

Sending someone to vote in the name of a person known to be out of town. Folding the ballots so that, after they have been cast, they can be read at one peep and quickly "corrected." Concealing pencil-lead under one's finger nails to void ballots by extra marks. Dropping ballots behiA--3 the box instead of through the slot. "The more handling a ballot gets, the surer it is to turn up in favor of the other candidate. . . . And . . . you gotta make sure the ballot boxes are empty before the voting starts. Sometimes we'd put in a few votes just to get things going right."