Shaving the vote

Democratic Party workers in Chicago wouldn't admit it, but they did it.

They told voters not to cast a ballot for somebody in their party. In a multi-candidate contest, they may have only campaigned for one of the slated candidates. Some may have even asked voters to cast a ballot for an opponent if they didn't want their candidate to win by too large a margin.

The effort was supposed to be secret and undetected. But it didn’t always happen that way.

In 1980, Mayor Jane Byrne publicly called upon Democratic precinct captains to "shave the vote" for her arch-enemy Richard M. Daley, who was running for Cook County State’s Attorney, and allow incumbent Republican Bernard Carey to win re-election.

She wanted them to tell voters to choose Carey, not Daley. And many did that.

But a slew of undecided voters, appalled at what they viewed as the Mayor's blatant, unethical directive, opted for Daley, thus contributing to his victory.