Graft is how the members in a political machine would manage the way things work to how they wanted it. Once they got their canidate into office, even if they had to use fake names to cast more votes, they would have somebody do a job in the city and make them pay more then what it actually cost. That's where the extortion and fraud came in, because they would use that money to put towards the political machine and make it run even more smoothly for the next time. The Gilded age was really a corrupt time. A lot of the bad things that happened, extortion bribs, drug on up to now even. Maybe if this didn't happen or wasn't as big as a problem then we wouldn't be facing it so much now? I think it would still happen but mayber on a much lesser scale and it would be more punishable and looked down upon in society.-Breann Lehr
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