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5 Totally Bizarre Factoids About US Presidential Elections

Despite generally standardized election practices across the US states, every general election has its own unique quirks. Candidates in the 1884 election were judged not only by their policies but also through phrenological analysis. Phrenology is the practice of judging character by 'reading' the lumps and bumps on a person's skull. In 1920, five-time failed Socialist candidate Eugene V. Debs, or 'Convict No. 9653,' ran for president from federal prison. He still garnered 900,000 votes. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, American women's voting rights were severely constrained. To prevent them from voting on issues they weren't entitled to vote on, men's and women's ballot boxes were separate, so women's votes could be easily thrown out. Anti-suffrage knickknacks, depicting cats saying 'I want my vote,' were very popular at one time. They implied if women could vote, then cats should be able to vote, too. Getting a jump on Twitter, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first to schedule his own radio broadcast. In doing so, his 'fireside chats' bypassed news outlets that refused to cover his campaign.