Who said vote early and often

This could make a case for Chicago. Big Bill was William Hale Thompson, who served as mayor twice between and It's alleged that "vote early and often" credit-taker Al Capone helped return enough votes to get Thompson reelected.

But Thompson doesn't seem to have originated the phrase either. Zelizer teaches the history of machine politics, where New York City and State play a starring role.

Zelizer says he heard the phrase a lot when living in Albany, where one of the country's hardiest machines flourished for more than a century. Zelizer: And it was a smaller machine than its counterpart in Tammany Hall but used all the same tactics and had amazing longevity, using tax assessments to make sure people voted the right way, allegations of voter fraud, again going into the s and 80s and, you know, being right in the seat of New York State politics.

But the phrase seems to have been common by , when it pops up in the New York Times and the Chicago Press and Tribune. Four years earlier, it had a more sinister application. In , according to Civil War historians, a group of pro-slavery settlers from Missouri, called Border Ruffians, crossed into Kansas territory on election day "to vote early and often" on behalf of Kansas for slavery.

It worked. So it's possible that voting early and often was a frontier technique as well as an urban one. And Julian Zelizer says it may have come to this country with the ancestors of politicians and voters alike: that is, by boat. Zelizer: I even once heard it came from politics in Ireland, dating back-you know, pretty far back. Now I have no idea if that's true or not, but that's another rumor I've heard.

Northwestern University's Bill Savage has heard it too. Dooley, created by 19th century writer Finley Peter Dunne, makes frequent reference to the concept of voting early and often, as do other writers. Savage: There's a great line in Nelson Algren's book Chicago City on the Make where he talks about Hinky Dink Kenna and Bathhouse John Coughlin standardizing the price of the vote, and how that was almost a civil service because it made things almost understandable and easy.

Or is it? Zelzer teaches the history of machine politics, where New York City and State play a starring role. Zelzer: And it was a smaller machine than its counterpart in Tammany Hall but used all the same tactics and had amazing longevity, using tax assessments to make sure people voted the right way, allegations of voter fraud, again going into the s and 80s and, you know, being right in the seat of New York State politics. But the phrase seems to have been common by , when it pops up in the New York Times and the Chicago Press and Tribune.

Four years earlier, it had a more sinister application. It worked. And Julius Zelzer says it may have come to this country with the ancestors of politicians and voters alike: that is, by boat.

Zelzer: I even once heard it came from politics in Ireland, dating back-you know, pretty far back. Dooley, created by 19th century writer Finley Peter Dunne, makes frequent reference to the concept of voting early and often, as do other writers. Or is it? It all is part of one ongoing story of the city that gets told over and over again. Parker: Wait, so that actually happened to you?