Photos from the Warren Times Mirror Editorial cartoons published around the 1944 presidential election that saw Franklin Roosevelt elected to an unprecedented fourth term.

When Franklin Roosevelt was elected to a third term in 1940, the winds of war were whipping but the storm hadn’t come.

But, by 1944, they had.

Hundreds of thousands of American men had been killed in both the European and Pacific theaters.

It was a landslide election. Roosevelt won the Electoral College 432-99 and the popular vote by over 3.5 million votes over New York Gov. Thomas Dewey.

Dewey won Warren County 8,965 to 4,176 for Roosevelt.

But who won the election didn’t really appear in local editorials in the week before election day.

The message was clear – voting was a “war-time civic duty.”

“Here’s a timely reminder for voters of Warren county written by Simon Michelet, president of the National Get Out The Vote Club, ‘in tribute to the Men and Women in uniform — as they fight for the Country in the Armed Forces U.S.A.'”

“It is an axiom of law that every Right has its correlative Duty,” the Warren Times Mirror explained. “Both the U.S. Constitution and the Constitution of most of the 48 states declare voting — not merely a “privilege” — but a Right and hence a Civic Duty.

“Slackers on Election Day set up the alibi that voting is a “privilege” which carries no civic duty. What fighter under colors can plead “privilege”? He would be shot as a deserter.”

Beyond being a duty, editors pointed out how voting would serve as a shot in the arm to the Armed Forces.

“Every patriotic American is naturally glad to show our fighters under arms that the men and women on the home front can do their duty as conscientiously and efficiently as the men and women on the war fronts.

“Whether fighters or voters, true Americans will not fail in their duty to their country.

“Our armed forces are fighting for the right to have a government which is truly representative. The least you can do for them is to keep alive, by voting, the right our men under colors are giving their all to preserve.”

Editors acknowledged that most readers had someone close to them in the military.

“He is giving years of his youth, an important part of his career, perhaps even his life, to save our American way of living and governing,” they claimed. “The essence of the American way is that the government is the servant of the people, not their master, and that every man and woman has the inalienable right to vote in determining who and what that servant shall be.”

They pointed out that there were more offices on the ballot than just the president. The balance of Congress and the State Legislature were up for debate.

“Your ballot is as important to the final aims of democracy as your soldier’s bullet,” they reiterated. “And your task is so easy, compared to his, that it is almost blasphemy to mention them in the same sentence. Just an hour or so to get to the polls, mark a ballot or pull a lever and go back to the business or pleasure of life.

They attempted to get a sense for the pulse of the community on election day.

“The storm of political feeling is swept away, with only a few disappointed dis-hards still grumbling like distant thunder,” they concluded. “But this year we need to be sure that all animosity vanishes quickly, for time is precious and much remains to be done.

We must close ranks behind the newly elected President and Commander-in-Chief. We must remember that the majority has spoken and decided, and that it has spoken freely at a time when such freedom is particularly precious. We must remember that the greatness of America is America itself – its millions, not the leaders or parties that come and go.

“And we must remember that the world looks to that America of the millions today, to its strength and its freedom and its decency for hope and help. It is only a nation undivided and indivisible that can maintain that strength, preserve that freedom and enhance that reputation for decency in the world of nations.”

There was concern that the result might not be known for weeks given when various states were set to count votes from soldiers (Pennsylvania wasn’t going to start counting those ballots until a week and a half after election day.

“It requires no straining of the imaging to picture the eyes of the world focused on Philadelphia’s City Hall, where the outcome of the Presidential contest may hang on the contents of a dwindling little pile of military ballot envelopes,” editors wrote.

That wound up not being a legitimate concern as the election wasn’t close.

Over 2,400 soldiers from Warren County were sent ballots and 775 were received by election day.

“On the basis of almost complete returns the American people have given President Roosevelt a fourth term in the White House – but apparently by a smaller margin than they voted him a third,” the paper reported the day after the election. “At the same time he carries with him every prospect of a strengthened Democratic majority in the Congress which will act in the end of the war and the making of the peace.

“And with the triumph that gives him twice as many terms as the nation ever has granted any other man goes the implied endorsement of a majority in this democracy of his leadership as Commander-in-Chief in war and in moves so far toward peace.”

They concluded that editorial with words from the defeated Dewey.

“I am confident that all Americans will join me in the hope that Divine Providence will guide and protect the president of the United States. I extend to President Roosevelt my heavy congratulations and my earnest hope that his next term will see speedy victory in the war and in the establishment of lasting peace and the restoration of tranquility.”