Low Down Dirty Vote: Inspired by a Texan who fought voter fraud

HALLIE EPHRON: What a great idea: an anthology of crime fiction about voter suppression. Writer and anthology editor Mysti Berry told an interviewer how the idea came to her:  

“I was sitting in a restaurant with my husband after the 2016 election, feeling horribly naïve to have believed all these years that voting rights were universally protected in the United States. It was news to me that people in this country, since at least the time of Nixon, have been actively seeking ways to keep Democrats from voting. They try to disenfranchise people of color, young voters, any residents of blue districts in red states. In that restaurant, feeling stupid, staring hopelessly at the condensation on my water glass, a title came to me out of nowhere: 'Low Down Dirty Vote.' The last thing voting should be. And thus, Volume I was published July 4, 2018."

"Low Down Dirty Vote - Volume II" is just out and proceeds will benefit the Southern Poverty Law Center's projects to support voting rights in the United States. Scott Turow wrote the introduction. We’re delighted to welcome one of the contributors, Jim Doherty, to talk about the fascinating character and chapter in history that inspired his story.

JIM DOHERTY: Winston Churchill, one of the greatest leaders of a democracy in the history of leaders of democracies, nailed democracy’s point when he described, with almost mystic reverence, “ . . . the little man, walking into the little booth, with a little pencil, making a little cross on a little bit of paper—no amount of rhetoric or voluminous discussion can possibly diminish the overwhelming importance of that point.”

When that hypothetical “little man [or woman]” makes that mark, s/he is absolutely equal to everyone else making that little mark, Be they stronger, smarter, healthier, wealthier, when they’re making their “mark,” they’ve an equal say in their governance.

That’s why it’s so important that citizens aren’t kept from voting, or that their votes aren’t rendered pointless by fraud or theft.

I’m proud to be one of one of the contributors to LDDV2. “The Lord of LaValle” features Gus Hachette, a character I’ve developed in other stories.

He’s based on a real-life Texas law officer who, during an amazingly eventful career, was virtually every kind of policeman it’s possible to be, state cop, small-town police chief, big city detective, deputy sheriff, and federal investigator.

Researching him over the years, I became convinced that he wasn’t just a great cop, but possibly the greatest ever to pin on a badge. An inspiration to me in my police career. A spark to my imagination in my writing career.

But writing Gus was difficult. You’d think with characters and events all laid out in history, it’d be a snap. But real-life’s messy. Fiction’s tidy. Tidying up real-life into readable fiction is sometimes harder than just making it up.

Still, those real-life stories are so damned compelling!

Max Allan Collins, who’s made a career out of fictionalizing real-life crimes, once said, “God’s a great storyteller, but He’s a lousy plotter,” adding, “That’s why He created writers.”

When the call for submissions to LDDV2 went out, I recalled that one of the last crimes my real-life model investigated was a case of voter fraud in an election for US Senator. The contenders in the Democrat primary were a popular former governor and an up-and-coming young congressman. At that time, Texas being part of the Solid South, whoever won the primary would be the de facto Senator-Elect.

A notorious political boss conveniently found enough uncounted ballots to swing the election from one candidate to the other. Gus’s original was called out of semi-retirement to investigate.

In the true-life case, he was unable to prevent the fraud his investigation clearly showed had occurred, and the losing candidate won. This had profoundly tragic consequences, among which were the deaths, in combat, of 60,000 US soldiers, to no real purpose.

In my fictional version, the good guys win!

Tidying up reality, indeed.

The story itself had an unexpected “come-from-behind” win, too.

After I submitted it, Mysti wrote back, praising “The Lord of LaValle” as “an amazing story.” But she’d already accepted a Texas-set piece featuring a flamboyant cop, and didn’t want two such similar stories.

C’est la vie, I thought. Thanking her for considering it, I sent it out to other markets.

Then, several weeks later, she e-mailed me again. She’d decided, after comparing the stories, that they really weren’t all that similar. If mine was still available, could she include it?

That’s never happened to me before. I’ve been accepted. And Lord knows, I’ve been rejected. But I’d never been rejected, and then had the editor reconsider, on her own, and get accepted after already being rejected.

But Gus’s model was known for his “come-from-behind” wins, too.

HALLIE: Are you feeling the effects of voter suppression in your world? Where I am in Massachusetts, I'm afraid I take for granted that voting is a piece of cake. Usually it takes under ten minutes, and this year it's been made much easier to mail in ballots. But I know it's not like that everywhere.

JIM DOHERTY a policeman for over 20 years, has served US law enforcement at the federal, state, and local levels. He’s the author of the true-crime collection Just the Facts – True Tales of Cops & Criminals, which included the WWA Spur-winning article, “Blood for Oil,” and the novel An Obscure Grave, a CWA Dagger finalist.