"The S.O.B. voted twice"

Interested in becoming an urban planner, I applied to some colleges as a political science major and some as an engineering major. At Cornell, I started as an engineer but switched to government after my sophomore year. That’s how I was in Professor Lowi’s Government 101 class as a junior during the fall semester of 1972. During one lecture, he told this story about the Solid South where he was born.

There was an election in the Deep South back when the Solid South was all Democrat. When the polls closed, they started to count the paper ballots: “Democrat, Democrat, Democrat, Democrat...Republican?” The election inspectors talked about it for a while and they decided they had to count it. Then they continued to count the ballots: “Democrat, Democrat, Democrat, Democrat, Democrat, Democrat, Democrat...Republican?”  “I knew it,” the chief inspector said. “The S.O.B. voted twice.” And they threw both ballots out.

I retell this story from time to time to this very day, whether it is to explain what a “Yellow Dog Democrat” is, to describe the history of the South and the Democratic Party, or to show how things have changed and how they remain the same.

What an honor it was to be taught a beginning government course by someone as distinguished as Professor Lowi. This shows the kind of opportunities available at a university like Cornell. His students were listening, even in a big freshman lecture hall, and we remember at least something he taught us.

(P.S. I got a B+ in Government 101, my best grade that semester!)

Lois Simmons

College of Arts and Sciences

Cornell Class of 1974