George Caleb Bingham’s The County Election dates from the year 1852 and shows an idealized portrait of the democratic process in the United States at the century’s midpoint. The canvas shows not only the ways democracy works but also the ways it fails. The large oil painting, which measures 38 inches tall by 52 inches long, is the first in a series of three paintings that Bingham completed in the 1850s that depict U.S. democracy in action. The other canvases are titled Stump Speaking (1853–54) and The Verdict of the People (1854–55). Bingham’s “Election” series of paintings demonstrate the vitality—and the rampant corruption—of nineteenth-century American democracy.