This is the way it was done and still is being done. Take those political precincts within whose boundaries the “redlight” districts exact their toll from the thousands of unfortunate souls, who live in the iniquitous Hell-holes or haunt them in search of pleasure.
Political powers were busy systematizing. Elections threatened to defeat them and kill their plans.
The ballot box was the salvation.
The prostitution of the ballot came into existence and lives and flourishes today, the primal blot on Chicago’s once honorable escutcheon!
To gain an election, to hold political and vice-power the ballot box was and is stuffed by a subtle and almost unpunishable method.
A district, by way of example, is populated by a floating and transient element, brought into Chicago by the agents of the corrupt or drawn here by promises of lucrative gain.
These men are used to stuff the ballot boxes and secure a victory of crime, sin and iniquity.
On the South Side there are scores of hotels, whose standard and character are written in unmistaken language on their very exteriors. These also exist on the West and North sides of the city.
The assignation houses and the cheap lodging houses are the media for slaying the honest ballot.
Men, brought to the city to corrupt elections, register in these places under the names of prostitutes and absent inmates and under this guise, cast polluted votes.