Faggot-votes, votes manufactured, chiefly for county elections, by the nominal sale of property, under mortgage or otherwise, so as to qualify the holder to vote. The extension of the county franchise has left faggot-votes practically no longer worth the trouble of procuring. The term faggot described formerly a person who was hired to fill up another's place at the muster of a regiment, or to conceal a deficiency in its strength.
Faggot-votes
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 4: Dionysius to Friction, p. 526
Source scan(s): p. 0541