The Fight Against the Rotten Boroughs
Legislative critics blast Washington State's failure to reapportion seats, arguing that rural 'cow counties' have kept power by ignoring population shifts.
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If the present Washington legislature decides to take up the question of legislative reapportionment, it will find on the basis of 1924 election returns that the disproportion between the representation of various counties has grown glaringly worse since the 1920 federal census. On the reapportionment made 24 years ago, Yakima and Jefferson counties were each given the same representation in the house—two members—despite massive population differences. Orville A. Welsh, who has been making a national survey of the legislative apportionment question for the New York World, declared in 'The Nation' that Washington is the worst 'rotten borough' state in the West. Section 3, article 2 of the state constitution provides that the legislature shall apportion and district anew after every federal census, yet this has not been done since 1901. King County, which should have 26 representatives based on population, is stuck with only 17.
“Washington is the worst 'rotten borough' state in the West.”
The struggle for equitable representation and the tension between urban population centers and rural legislative influence remains a hallmark of Washington state politics a century later.
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