Aberdeen’s City Council Faces Court Order Over Contested Election
A legal showdown over the city treasurer position pits John S. Gunn against William B. Mack, forcing the council to answer to the Superior Court.
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.
The mayor and councilmen of Aberdeen have been served with an Alternative Mandamus in the case of John S. Gunn against the city of Aberdeen. The petitioner, John S. Gunn, alleges that the City Council has refused to consider and determine a contest of an election for the office of City Treasurer, in which Gunn is the contestant and William B. Mack is the contestee. The court has commanded the council to immediately proceed with the determination of the contest according to the forms and usages provided by law, or to show cause before the Superior Court in Montesano on February 2, 1893, why they have not done so.
“That there is not a speedy and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law.”
Local political disputes over election certification are a perennial feature of civic life; while this 1893 conflict centered on the power of the council to ignore a contest, today's local government fights in Aberdeen often center on different tensions regarding resource allocation and development. The site of the court, the Chehalis County Courthouse, remains a fixture of the regional legal system.
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