Working

by Robert A. Caro

who were tabulating the vote, and he told me, not at all regretful but grinning, pleased with himself: “If they were not for Johnson, I make them for Johnson.” In case I had missed the point, he returned to it a few minutes later, saying, “Any vote for Stevenson I counted for Johnson.” A key point in the investigation in the federal court was whether or not Salas had, on election night, reported Johnson’s total in the box as 765 to a journalist named Cliff Dubose, and then, six days after the election, had added the 200 additional votes to Johnson’s total when he was reporting the results to the Texas Election Commission. Johnson’s opponents charged that the number that had been tabulated on election night, the number obtained by Salas having made them for Johnson, whether or not that was what the voter had intended, had been later raised from 765 to 965 by simply adding a loop to the 7 to change it into a 9. Salas had denied under oath that he had ever given the 765 number to Dubose. Now I asked him if he had, in fact, done that. Yes, he said, he had: on election night “I told Cliff 765.” But then, as I continued asking questions, he said, “I have written it all down.” He stood up and walked over to a trunk. Bending over stiffly, he opened it and pulled out a manuscript.