By Eric W. Schoen
No friends, I haven’t lost it. When you have an early deadline on Election Day where the President of the United States is, as they say in boxing the main card, you want to give your readers every bit of information you have on what’s going on.
Most of us were not alive to remember it but that was the erroneous banner headline on the Chicago Tribune the day after Election Day in 1948. The race ended up the other way around with the incumbent President Harry Truman winning.
Why was the headline wrong? For about a year prior to the 1948 election, the printers who operated the linotype machines, a composing machine producing lines of words as strips of metal at the Chicago Tribune and other Chicago papers had been on strike, in protest of the Taft–Hartley Act. The Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, better known as the Taft–Hartley Act, is a United States federal law that restricts the activities and power of labor unions. It was enacted by the 80th United States Congress over the veto of President Harry S. Truman, becoming law on June 23, 1947.
Around the same time, the Tribune had switched to a method by which copy for the paper was composed on typewriters (you remember them!) photographed, and then engraved onto the printing plates. This process required the paper to go to press several hours earlier than usual causing the mistake.
Rest assured friends, you will get no prediction on who won the extremely close 2020 Presidential Election from me. As we wait for the results which, as we saw in Bush vs. Gore can take several days or weeks, what better time to feast on an Election Cake. Election Cake is a yeast-leavened sweet bread reminiscent of an old-fashioned coffee ring. Many years ago, it was an American tradition that after voting and exiting the polls, each voter would receive a slice of Election Cake.
The first recipe for American Election Cake appears in 1796 in the first U.S. cookbook, Amelia Simmons’ American Cookery. You can read more about the history of the cake on the web page of the New England Historical Society. As we wait for the Presidential results, I think this cake is something we should make fashionable again to enjoy with our eyes glued to the television screen and radio.
Sadly, the Election parties where candidates supporters gather awaiting results won’t be occurring this year due to Covid. They are exciting events as poll watchers bring in the results on sheets of paper and the sheets are tallied. With everything electronic we now simply turn on News 12 or listen on the radio or internet or watch the Board of Elections website for the latest results.
The Early Voting this year went as well as could have been expected. This was the first year it was used in a Presidential Election which of course brings larger numbers of people to the polls. Some of the lines, some 2-3 hours plus were partially as a result of social distancing. But the bottom line next Presidential election is that Boards of Elections will need to bring more machines to the early voting sites.
And despite excellent pay (or better pay than in prior years), with Covid it was hard to get Election Inspectors, the individuals who sign you in and monitor the scanning machines that you put your ballot into. The Election Inspectors have a long day, are quite often situated in less than ideal environments with Covid making the job that much more difficult and dangerous. So let’s give a big hand and hearty congratulation and thank you to those who manned the polls.
There is a proposal in Albany that would require counties throughout New York State to open at least one early voting location for every 25,000 voters. Under current state law, counties are required to have one site per 50,000 voters, but no county is required to have more than seven locations. In New York City, the legislation would more than double the 88 polling locations the city originally opened for early voting this year.
I don’t know if you need as many machines for non-presidential elections where turnouts particularly in local election years can be quite low, but we can’t have people waiting in the rain and cold as we had this year for hours to vote.
As I said last week, I hark for the good old days with the lever machines, poll workers using big books to sign you in, and candidates showing up at the polls with boxed cookies or cake. I would always tell the candidate I worked for to put a sticker on the box that said, ‘Thank You Poll Workers for A Great Job! Harry Truman-Candidate for President.’ The poll workers should remove the sticker if the cookies or cake sat out in the open.
Many did not. So you go to vote, you see a nice candidate brought the workers a nosh, and if you hadn’t made up your mind it was a last minute push to get you to vote for the respective candidate. The secrets you learn participating in the process year after year!
I would like to have had the Board of Elections send I VOTED stickers when they received my mail in ballot to not only prove I voted but also that they received my ballot. Something to think about in the future.
Everyone from the Governor on down moans and groans about how poorly the election process works. They want to professionalize the Board of Elections taking politics and patronage out of The Board and bringing in professionals or civil servants running the operation. These moans and groans are as old as time, and as long as the decision as to who will run the elections is made by politicians politicians will run the Boards of Elections.
In Westchester until recently you had both Board of Elections Commissioners as chairs of their respective county political parties. Frankly this poses a conflict of interest and should never be allowed to happen.
Its sad to see New York City stores boarding up their beautiful windows in fear that there will be rioters and looters in the streets no matter who wins the election. Come on folks we are better than that! These poor stores were closed for months due to Covid and they need to earn back every dollar they can. No matter who wins the Election you still have to pay taxes and they are still going to go up. Sad to see some of the finest restaurants in New York City and Westchester close their doors in fear of looters on Election Day.
CNN has anchors, producers and staff scheduled round the clock for the next few days because they think the election will be close and they want to be there when one candidate claims victory and the other candidate concedes.Friends I think it’s going to be a long couple of days before we know the true winner.
But one thing we all can be sure of. Truman defeated Dewey in 1948! Take that to the bank!
Reach Eric Schoen at thistooisyonkers@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @ericyonkers. Listen to Eric Schoen and Dan Murphy on the Westchester Rising Radio Show Thursday’s from 10-11 a.m. On WVOX 1460 AM, go to WVOX.com and click the arrow to listen to the live stream or download the WVOX app from the App Store free of charge.
