"Nicking Votes," by Stephen Buehler, in Low Down Dirty Vote 2, edited by Mysti Berry, Berry Content Corporation, 2020.I have a story in this book, by the way.
It's the summer of 1974 and con man Nick Townson is having a bit of hard luck. His (stolen) car is overheating so he has to pull into a small desert town named Promise. He will have to wait overnight for repairs and figures to while away the time by conning the locals out of some money with bar bets and similar tricks.
But it turns out there is an election going on, with two candidates for mayor: a sleazy developer and the attractive owner of the bar where Nick is playing his sneaky games. Nick has no interest in politics but he may have no choice but to get involved.
A lot of clever twists in this one.
