A County Seat Fight With More Petition Signers Than Voters
Pacific County commissioners agreed to put the county seat up to a vote — then discovered that South Bend and Sealand had turned in 2,373 signatures from a county with barely 1,500 voters.
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.
SOUTH BEND, Aug. 26. — [Special.] — The county commissioners of Pacific county at their regular session, which has just closed, voted to submit the question of the removal of the county seat from Oysterville to either Sealand or South Bend at the next general election. The county seat fight can now be said to be fairly on, and it will be a spirited one. A remarkable and notable thing connected with the petitions which were presented to the commissioners by the supporters of the two towns was the surprising number of voters which there seemed to be in the county. According to the assessor’s census just taken there are not over 1,500 voters in the county, yet South Bend’s petition had 1,173 signers, all claiming to be qualified voters, and Sealand’s petition contained 1,200.
“According to the assessor’s census just taken there are not over 1,500 voters in the county, yet South Bend’s petition had 1,173 signers, all claiming to be qualified voters, and Sealand’s petition contained 1,200.”
County-seat wars were the municipal equivalent of a stadium or courthouse fight: they decided where jobs, tax money and political power would sit. The petition numbers — 2,373 signers in a county of roughly 1,500 voters — show how high the stakes were, and how loosely “qualified voter” could be interpreted. Modern annexation, redistricting and initiative fights still turn on who counts and who signs.
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