The Fight for the Ballot at the Tacoma Courthouse
In 1887, two suffragists took to the streets to demand the restoration of voting rights for women in Washington Territory.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Mrs. Zmilda McCoy and Mrs. Addie Barlow have been circulating a petition in the city for the past few days to be presented to the Legislature, asking for the enactment of the woman suffrage act in such form that it will be constitutional. Mrs. McCoy said yesterday that they had secured the signatures of every county officer except Prosecuting Attorney Ostrander. The latter they had not met, she said, but were certain that he would sign it. The probate judge, however, they added, had flatly refused to sign. They stated also that they had met Councilman-elect Steele and Representative Thompson, and they had both pledged themselves to support the measure.
“They had met Councilman-elect Steele and Representative Thompson, and they had both pledged themselves to support the measure.”
This 1887 grassroots campaign for suffrage reminds us that the right to vote was never granted easily in Washington; it was won through local petitioning, door-to-door persistence, and direct confrontation with elected officials. While the ballot is now a standard, the friction between citizens and those in power—and the refusal of some local officials to engage with democratic expansion—remains a staple of civic life in modern Seattle and Tacoma.
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