However, there wasn't enough evidence to prove that what fraud there that clearly DID exist was sufficient enough to change the state's results.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/27550168 **

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_United_States_presidential_election_in_Illinois

At the same time, multiple states' results were close enough to warrant recounts that COULD have shifted the win to Nixon.

JFK's father was dirty and connected enough to have significantly affected end results in many state's, but Nixon chose not to pursue recounts.

So, we'll never know the actual truth and speculation will continue forever... or as long as anybody alive still cares.

Remember one thing, it was FAR easier back then to commit election fraud. In fact, there were hundreds of dead people who voted in Chicago that year, along with households recording residents who voted 50+ times.

Over the years, registering and voting became much stricter, eliminating the ability to get away with what happened all too often back then.


** Abstract
The 1960 presidential election was the closest of the twentieth century when measured by the popular vote. John F Kennedy managed narrow margins in a number of critical states to carry him to victory over Richard M. Nixon. Because of the close call in Illinois (Kennedy won by an official count of 8,858 votes), the unsavory reputation of the Chicago Democratic organization, and certain newspaper reports, Republicans and Nixon became convinced that they had been cheated out of enough votes to have swung the state into the Republican column. This article analyzes these Republican allegations, which have been widely accepted, on the basis of two partial recounts of paper ballot precincts which were conducted in Cook County (Chicago) in the aftermath of the 1960 elections. This analysis shows that there was a pattern of miscounting votes which worked to the advantage of all Democratic candidates involved in the recount. The analysis also shows, however, that of the Republican candidates deprived of votes, Richard M. Nixon suffered the least. By comparing the two recounts and by making estimates based upon them it is possible to approximate a minimum number of votes Nixon lost as the result of election irregularities in Chicago. This figure of slightly less than 8,000 votes is not sufficient to make a convincing case that Nixon was cheated out of Illinois' electoral votes.

Sia: This shows that in only the TWO counties recounted, that Nixon was shorted 8,000 of the 8,858 difference in the entire state! No wonder they believed he was chested out of a win.

OTOH, even if he had been awarded Illinois, JFK would have still had 276 electoral votes and won anyway.