The Sleeping Judges of South Bend
A contest arises in Pacific County after election officials allegedly fell asleep during the vote count.
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.
Although South Bend won the county seat from Oysterville by a two-thirds majority, a contest has been filed. The grounds for the contest are that the judges of election at South Bend went to sleep before the count was finished, and that though they slept in the room with the ballot box, there was opportunity for stuffing it. Irregularities are also alleged in Lebam and Netna precincts. Phil S. Barney, Republican nominee for county auditor, who was defeated by Kenton Smith, will contest the result of the election on the same grounds.
“The grounds for the contest are that the judges of election at South Bend went to sleep before the count was finished.”
The transition of county seats was a high-stakes, bitter process in the early history of Washington, often leading to accusations of corruption that were as much about geography as they were about the ballot.
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