The Battle Over the Ballot Box in Seattle's First Ward

The Democratic orators and the Democratic organ have now turned their attention to the registration in the First Ward. They are making a desperate effort to convince the public that the registration in that ward is abnormally large, and that its size indicates some dark design on the part of the Republicans. 'It would seem clear that the intention is to swamp the reform movement by a tremendous vicious vote in the First ward. Shall this thing be permitted?' says the Telegraph hysterically.

Let us put hysterics aside and resort to calculation for an instant. The percentage of increase in the registration of the wards over that of last year shows that the First ward has a smaller per cent of increase than almost any other. As a matter of fact, the increase in the total registration of the city is nothing extraordinary; the city has grown considerably since the fire. The increase of 25 per cent in the registration is fully accounted for by the increase in the city's population during that time, borne out by postal statistics, school statistics and all other metrics. The talk of an abnormal registration is nonsense. It is like all the other misrepresentation, distortion of figures and falsification of records upon which the Democrats hope to ride into power. The people of Seattle are not to be stampeded with bombast.