to stuff the ballot box
2
8.4
- phrasal verb
- Literature
:
manipular las urnas
- And all the thieves of his kind that stole the election by stuffing the ballot boxes with multiple ballots and rigging the machines.
Examples
-
"Ain't it enough," I said, "that me and my friends "stuffed the ballot box to get you elected at all?"
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The Democratic Party has become a group of socialist losers who stuff ballot boxes and lie.
Blog text (28) -
It is the Chicago way to stuff ballot boxes.
Blog text (8) -
I just can't wait until the GOP wises up and starts stuffing the ballot boxes now that they know it's possible to do so.
Blog text (28) -
The candidates were caught trying to stuff the ballot box with fake votes to secure their win.
-
In the election, several individuals were accused of attempting to stuff the ballot box to manipulate the results.
-
She was arrested for trying to stuff the ballot box during the municipal election, which is a serious offense.
Antonyms
How Serious
9
6.3
- Literature
2
8.4
91
6.5
13
5.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is directly compositional: combining 'stuff' (to cram) with 'ballot box' (the container for votes) clearly suggests cramming extra ballots into the box. The implication that this is fraudulent/illegal is a natural inference from the context of manipulating votes, a notion commonly expressed similarly in other languages, so a B1 learner who knows the parts will understand the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Stuff the ballot box comes from the literal image of people secretly putting extra paper votes into a ballot box to change the result. That's why it means 'to illegally change an election by adding fake votes'.