Jon Burroughs: How to steal an election

Stolen presidential elections in the United States are not new. In 1824, Andrew Jackson earned the most electoral college votes but not enough to secure the win and the election was sent to the House of Representatives. Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House, gave the election to John Quincy Adams with himself as his Secretary of State in what was called a “corrupt bargain” leading to Jackson’s subsequent sweep in 1828.

In 1877, Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio neither had the largest popular nor electoral college vote but was subsequently “elected” president by a special electoral college commission appointed by the house of representatives after much money and political positions changed hands. This was dubbed the “second corrupt bargain.”