Dirty tricks

The act of spreading negative rumors about a political candidate, in order to discredit him or her in the eyes of voters. This can also be called a whispering campaign. According to Merriam Webster, the phrase dates back to …

“Swiftboating” refers to the use of dishonest or misleading tactics to attack or smear the reputation or character of a political opponent.

The term comes from the 2004 presidential campaign, when a group called the Swift Boat Veterans …

“Ballot box stuffing” is a term that refers to the practice of illegally submitting more than one vote in a ballot in which just one vote is actually permitted.

The goal is ballot box stuffing is to rig …

A “hatchet man” is an operative in charge of doing political dirty work — or dirty tricks — both during a campaign and sometimes as part of normal government functions.

The word was first popularized during the Watergate scandal. Several …

A smear campaign is repeated uses of smears in an attempt to try to damage someone’s reputation, typically to make them lose an election.

The goal of a smear campaign is to create a negative public perception of the targeted …

“Dirty tricks” are actions taken by a political campaign or candidate to damage their opponents that may involve unethical, distasteful, or illegal behaviors.

Political candidates and parties have used dirty tricks dating back to the early years of the American …

A list of political opponents kept by the Nixon administration. The phrase “enemies list” is now used as shorthand to refer to suspected abuses of power in any administration.

In 1973, former White House aide John Dean III told the …

The “cemetery vote” refers to a form of voter fraud, in which votes are cast in the names of registered voters who have, in fact, passed away. The term is also sometimes used when a vote is improperly cast by …

“Roorback” is a false, dirty or slanderous story used for political advantage, usually about a candidate seeking political office.

In 1940 the Chicago Tribune offered this definition:

A roorback is a false report about some alleged misdeed in a candidate’s

Aardvarking is recruiting candidates for public office with the main objective of having their names begin with the letter A.

The practice of aardvarking is rooted in the idea that people have a natural tendency to favor options that appear …

A “push poll” is a form of interactive marketing in which political operatives try to sway voters to believe in certain policies or candidates under the guise of an opinion poll.

More akin to propaganda than an actual unbiased opinion …