In this discussion, do not forget that today's voting is somewhat more protected than it was in Mark Twain's day. As late as1908 there is this tale of "ballot stuffing" that speaks to the issue: From the Red Bluff News of May 8, 1908: THE HERRIN BUNCH STUFFED BALLOT BOX CAST MORE VOTES THAN THERE WERE WOMEN AND CHILDREN.Up at Weed, In Siskiyou County, the home of Senator Abner Weed, one of the strongest Southern Pacific political representatives in the northern part of the State, and who was himself a candidate for delegate to the Republican State convention, says an exchange, they do politics in a way that would make Abe Ruef and the Herrin boosters about the [San Francisco] bay turn green with envy. There are 139 registered voters in Weed precinct. These 139 voters Include Republicans, Democrats. Prohibitionists and Populists. But in the face of this there were polled at the Republican primaries In Weed precinct yesterday 167 votes and every last one of them was cast for the Herrin ticket, which was headed by Senator Abner Weed. There was a good sprinkling ofDemocratic voters in Weed at the last election and these, with the Republican votes added, did not make a total of 139, the strength of the precinct shown on the register. But yesterday the voters flocked to that precinct in surprising numbers.
 


     On Saturday, September 26, 2015 10:51 AM, Jim Leonard <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
   

 I think Kevin is entirely right about this.  Twain's distrust of the common=
 voter and belief that the votes of the wealthy and educated should weigh m=
ore than those of the poor and ignorant is explicitly (and, as Kevin sugges=
ts, non-satirically) laid out in "The Curious Republic of Gondour," is stro=
ngly implied in The Gilded Age, and, I would say, is generally consistent t=
hroughout Twain's writings.  I believe Lou Budd also suggested something of=
 the sort many years ago in Mark Twain, Social Philosopher.

P. S.  In "The Curious Republic," it's the narrator's desire to return to h=
is "dear native land" that's satirized.  --Jim L.=20


-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Twain Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kevin Mac Don=
nell
Sent: Friday, September 25, 2015 2:53 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: When political posters quote Mark Twain

Yup, I think the case can be made either way. The narrator was glad to get =
back home, so this could signal it was satire, but it reads as if it is a s=
erious proposal, and I've always thought Twain was seriously floating the n=
otion (the more educated you are the more votes you get, etc.). If I weren'=
t snowed under on other writing projects I'd be tempted to dive into this o=
ne and read his letters to Howells (the sketch was published by Howells in =
The Atlantic Monthly), Twain's other comments on voting like Pap in HF, Twa=
in's political speeches and letters of the 1870s-80s, etc.

Kevin
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