The Mysterious Case of 'John Doe' at the Polls
A crackdown on anonymous, blank warrants used to harass voters during Seattle’s city elections.
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.
At our last city election, law-abiding citizens were arrested at the polls on warrants drawn against 'John Doe,' brought before a justice, and made to give bail. An earnest Republican who made himself conspicuous at the polls was liable to be arrested on a warrant charging 'John Doe' with having falsely registered. This kind of warrant is discountenanced by respectable police justices. Recently in New York City, Gardner, the agent of the Society for the Prevention of Crime, went to the Tombs court and got twelve blank affidavits and twelve blank warrants. Gardner told Justice McMahon that he would return to have the justice sign some warrants. 'They will be drawn against John Doe,' said Gardner. 'Well then, John Doe will have to be described and his place of business or his residence located in the warrant. Otherwise, I will not sign it,' said Justice McMahon. It is well to understand right here, said Justice Kilbreth of the Essex Market court, that I agree with the other justices in their opposition to promiscuous and careless warrant issuing. I refuse to give you the warrants unless John Doe is clearly described. Both Democrat and Republican justices agreed in refusing to issue warrants that do not clearly describe the accused.
“I refuse to give you the warrants unless John Doe is clearly described.”
The practice of using 'John Doe' warrants to intimidate political rivals at the polls highlights a recurring tension in Seattle’s history: the struggle between administrative weaponization of the law and the protection of civil rights. Just as voters were harassed in 1892, contemporary debates over voting access and the policing of democratic processes continue to echo these same concerns about civic intimidation.
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