ROCKEFELLER AND THE (RIGGED?) VOTING MACHINES IN THE 1950s

In the late 1950's, Nelson Rockefeller decided the time had come at last to run for elective office. His decision essentially coincided with the adoption in New York State of mechanical voting machines made by the 1/

Automatic Voting Machine Company of Jamestown, New York. This company had been purchased and merged into the Rockefeller-dominated Rockwell Manufacturing Company.
Rumors were widespread that they were fixable and facilitated the stealing of elections,but these suggestions were 2/

ridiculed by some who proclaimed themselves to be authorities. In any case, Nelson Rockefeller, New Deal Democrat, resolved to enter the race for Governor of New York State as a Republican since the Democrats were committed to nominating someone else--Averill Harriman. He was 3/

welcomed into the Republican Party without difficulty and easily became the nominee.After winning the election, handsomely I may say, he promptly took full control of the Automatic Voting Machine Company by buying up stock from minority stockholders at $20 per share,five times 4/

the market price of $4.00 a share. Of course there was no suggestion that this reflected his evaluation of the role the machines played in his election.

Several years later in the early 1960's a great hue and cry arose in Louisiana about the stealing of elections by means of 5/

a different machine in use there, the Shoup Voting Machine.
Finally the legislature was forced to act. On the basis of a concurrent resolution, the legislature staged a demonstration of the various voting machines used in the United States. Former employees of the companies 6/

demonstrated the ease with which such machines could be fixed to steal elections. In the course of the demonstration, it was shown that the Shoup machine could be more easily fixed, and in more ways than any other for the purpose of election stealing. Very shortly thereafter, 7/

New York State, whose Governor was now Nelson Rockefeller, ordered the disposal of their automatic voting machines at sacrifice prices; and their replacement was Shoup machines. Control of the Shoup Voting Machine Company was also purchased, passed through a number of obscure 8/

transfers which Dun & Bradstreet had difficulty in following, and reportedly ended up when last checked in an obscure subsidiary of what is now known as Exxon. The Rockefeller-control of Exxon is, of course, well known. 9/

Thereafter Nelson Rockefeller had no difficulty in being re-elected time and again despite his growing unpopularity in New York State. 10/

Peter David Beter, 1975
https://peterdavidbeter.com/docs/all/dbal01.html