"He Was Always Coming Up with Some Screwball Idea"

THERE has been considerable controversy about whether or not recent political elections have been, as they used to say, on the up and up. It so happens that today's story is also about an election. Now, you're probably going to say that this sort of thing could never happen, but we say, don't bet on it . . .

"Electronic Landslide."

By Clyde Hostetter (?-?).

First appearance: Future Science Fiction, February 1960.

Short short story (6 pages).

Online at SFFAudio (HERE).

   "No, I mean the real Constitution," says Brains. "The one those guys wrote back when there weren't no voting machines or anything."

THERE must be more ways to swing an election than that proverbial cat, but the boys in the back room of the Fifth Ward have run out of ideas. Not even the graveyard vote can save this one. Leave it to an experienced ward heeler known as "Brains," however, to come up with a way of creating votes out of an unexpected place . . .

Main characters:

~ Brains McGillicuddy ("To be exact, 1,280,570"), Knuckles Sparoni ("We'll never get away with it"), Greasy-Palm Harrington ("Getting votes without paying for them sounds dishonest, somehow"), Arthur P. Parkinson ("was running on a platform of no graft and more efficiency in government"), and the unnamed narrator ("My specialty is human nature").

References:

- "ward heeler":

  "A ward heeler is an American urban political operative who works for a political party in a political ward, the smallest electoral subdivision of a city, usually to achieve an election result. The concept often carries connotations of corruption. 

  "A ward heeler may have controlling influence with a small clique in the ward organization. Often, ward heelers have been low-level operatives soliciting votes and performing campaign tasks on behalf of a political boss, including get-out-the-vote efforts, placing campaign signage, coordination of constituent support, etc. In many urban areas, ward heelers also serve as precinct captains." (Wikipedia HERE).

- "he is over eighteen years of age":

  "The Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution (passed and ratified in 1971) prevents states from setting a voting age higher than 18." (Wikipedia HERE).

- "Look at the Fifteenth Amendment." (Wikipedia HERE).

- "the third party reform candidate":

  "Third party, or minor party, is a term used in the United States' two-party system for political parties other than the Democratic and Republican parties. The Electoral College for presidential elections and the plurality voting system for most other elections have established a two-party system in American politics. Third parties are most often encountered in presidential elections and while third-party candidates rarely win elections, they can have an effect on them through vote splitting and other impacts." (Wikipedia HERE).

Resources:

- Both the ISFDb and FictionMags's lists of Clyde Hostetter's output aren't too large (vi = vignette; ss = short story):

  (1) "Search for Life," (vi) Fantastic Universe, October 1958

  (2) "Electronic Landslide," (ss) Future Science Fiction #47, February 1960. (above)

- "Evidence," a 1946 short story by Isaac Asimov, was one of the first to kick around the idea of robots being involved in politics; for a summary see Wikipedia (Warning! Spoilers! HERE). Better still, see the story online at Archive.org (HERE).

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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