The Tightest Race in Town
A primary election for city attorney ends in a razor-thin, one-vote victory that exposes deep divisions across the three wards.
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.
Nobody got very much excited nor took very much interest in Tuesday's primary election and a lot of people didn't go to the polls, but the one contest on the ticket developed into a mighty close race. F. R. Jeffrey secured the nomination for city attorney over C. B. Hamlet by just one vote, the total being 129 for Jeffrey and 128 for Hamlet. Down in the third ward where Mr. Hamlet lives there were only two votes in the box for his opponent, but Mr. Jeffrey's lead in the other two wards swung the election in his favor. Although S. R. Harper was the only candidate on the ticket for councilman in the first ward, he was defeated by Charles Haas whose friends gave him a big lead by means of stickers.
“F. R. Jeffrey secured the nomination for city attorney over C. B. Hamlet by just one vote.”
Local elections in small Washington towns have historically often come down to a handful of votes, and the 1915 struggle between Jeffrey and Hamlet highlights the recurring importance of ward-based political maneuvering in Kennewick's civic history.
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