Those 1932 election results in Chariton

Snow fell in Lucas County on Election Day 1932 as Franklin D. Roosevelt crushed Iowa's own Herbert Hoover in the race for the presidency, creating in his wake a Democratic landslide.

The date on The Chariton Leader of Tuesday, Nov. 8, 1932, is a little misleading. It actually was published during the early morning hours of Wednesday, Nov. 9, after as many election results as could be gathered had been.

Lucas Countyans, then and now, acquired their news differently. This year, all of the election reporting that I tuned in came via the internet. I even checked the phone upon awaking about 2 a.m. Wednesday --- just in case I'd missed something.

Back then, the radio and the telephone provided the most up to date access to news, but newspapers still were depended upon to sort out all of the races, local, state and national, within a day or two after the vote.

Here's how a Chariton Leader editor described the process in an article published under the headline, "City Stands By; Everything Falls But Bed Springs: Sleep In Background While Balloting Results Are Awaited" ---

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Snow fell. Stray pedestrians slipped and fell on the icy walks. The stocks of approximately fifty per cent of the candidates fell. Night fell. But a city did not sleep.

A tour of Chariton long after midnight found lights shining from the windows of many homes long after the usual retiring hour of the occupants.

Grouped around radios, attired in pajamas and bathrobes, were men, women and children.  In the office of the Chariton newspapers, which remained open throughout the night gathering the election returns that went in the special election extra of the Chariton Leader to all corners of Lucas county, two telephones buzzed continually.

Through one, unceasing requests came asking for information concerning the standings of their favorites for county, state, and national posts. The other, connected with the telephone in the office of County Auditor Robert Dillman, gave the leader returns as they were sent to the court house from the various precincts.

Crowds gathered at the courthouse and in the editorial rooms of the newspapers to gather their election reports first hand. Some were happy, some were sad, because somebody loses and somebody wins.