faggot-vote
(ˈfægətvəʊt)
[App. a transferred use of faggot n. 7, ‘dummy’ soldier; as many faggot-votes were often created at one time by the practice (forbidden in 7 & 8 Will. III. c. 25) of subdividing a single tenement among a number of nominal owners, the word was naturally interpreted as alluding to the primary sense ‘bundle of sticks’.]
A vote manufactured for party purposes, by the transfer to persons, not otherwise legally qualified, of sufficient property to qualify them as electors.
| 1817 Sir F. Burdett in Parl. Deb. 1368 Lord Lonsdale had conveyed to him a certain property, on which he was to vote in that borough, as, what was familiarly called a faggot vote. 1836 Disraeli Lett. Runnymede 60 Notwithstanding..your father's fagot votes. 1879 Daily News 16 Apr. 2/2 Attempts to tamper with the register by the introduction of what are termed faggot votes. |
Hence faggot-voter, -voting.
| 1880 Gladstone in Pall Mall G. 14 July 2/1 The subject of the fagot voter. 1887 Times (weekly ed.) 28 Oct. 7/2 The question of faggot-voting. |