Election Day Treating
Buying Votes The day before the election, Courtesy of the Library of Congress
There are a number of important primary elections for the US house and senate still to be decided this summer before the general election in November. Here is another related story in our series stumping and eating, the role of food and drinks in political elections. During the antebellum period party operatives used “election day treating,” a practice rooted in British culture, to get people to vote (your vote in exchange for food and spirits—especially whisky and rum). Historically the tactic had a strong class dimension to it and particularly so after 1828 when Jacksonian Democrats increased popular participation in elections by reducing residency requirements for voting, eliminating the practice of voting by voice, and increasing access to voting places.
