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218
MARYLAND HISTORICAL MAGAZINE
~,~e ruth~uae~rt-
A: -Wnd
rog~-"IL to
FIGURE 2. A "bogus
Republican hero U.
ballot" to deceive illiterate voters: an 1876 Democratic ticket headed by a
portrait of
S. Grant. (Maryland Historical Society. Photo: Jeff Goldman.)
died" to the party's supporters by paid party workers known as peddlers,
hawkers,
holders, or bummers, who stationed themselves near the polls and pressed
their
tickets on prospective voters. These contending hawkers, each trying to
force his
ticket upon the voter, contributed greatly to the tumult and chaos
surrounding the
polls on election day. At times workers of one party completely thronged
the polls
and allowed only their own partisans to approach the ticket window, driving
from
the vicinity the hawkers of the other party and, with them, the possibility
of votes
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