The Struggle for the Ninth Ward Seat
After seventeen rounds of voting and a failed attempt at consensus, George V. Stocks was elected alderman, ending a tense period of legislative deadlock.
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The city council met in joint convention last night. The board of aldermen elected George V. Stocks alderman from the Ninth Ward to succeed J.M. Wolfe. It looked for a time as though there was going to be a deadlock, as seventeen ballots had to be taken before either candidate could secure a majority. Mr. Ingram reported that previous agreements to support candidates had fallen apart, leading to a long and contentious process. Stocks, an electric mechanic who arrived from Pennsylvania four years ago, was finally elected unanimously on the seventeenth ballot. During recess, Stocks qualified before Deputy Clerk Ragan and took his seat.
“It looked for a time as though there was going to be a deadlock, as seventeen ballots had to be taken before either candidate could secure a majority.”
The arduous seventeen-round voting process for a local alderman underscores the intensely factional nature of 19th-century municipal government. It offers a window into the messy, often opaque backroom bargaining that defined early Seattle's transition from a frontier town to a structured city.
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