The Election Day Plot at Black Diamond
Election officials warn of a sinister scheme to disrupt the vote at the coal mines, prompting calls for citizens to guard the ballot box.
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 Committee is in receipt of the most reliable information as to the details of the plot, and every effort will be made to thwart the plans of the scoundrels who have hatched it. The plot in which all of the imported rowdies will participate is aimed to prevent the voters from casting their ballots. The places where they have been posted are: The mines, the bunk house, the commissary, the hotel, the saloon and elsewhere. Residents are asked to watch the polls with only the vigilance and the duty reliance upon them that will carry them through that day to the ballot box. Let all read the ballot law carefully, and let there be no hesitation about challenging the voters who present themselves at the polls. If the accomplishment of this plot fails as it needs to fail, it will be thwarted only by the intelligence of the people of this Territory and its readiness to guard the polls and see that none of their votes are taken from them by intimidation and fraud.
“Let there be no hesitation about challenging the voters who present themselves at the polls.”
Concerns over voter suppression and the presence of 'imported' agitators at election sites were significant civic anxieties in 1880s Washington. These fears are strikingly similar to modern concerns regarding election integrity and the protection of polling places.
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