The Bitter Fight Over Moving Snohomish County’s Seat to Everett

Snohomish, Jan. 4.—Special.—County Treasurer Lawry filed an appeal today from the order of the board of county commissioners directing the county seat to be removed to Everett on January 21. He filed a lengthy affidavit on appeal, in which the whole ground of objection to the order of the board is gone over, indicating that Snohomish will interpose every possible legal objection to its being carried into effect. A strong point is made of the fact that the board of commissioners met within fifteen minutes after the canvassing board had adjourned, and declared the result of the county seat vote without canvassing the returns themselves. Lawry charges that the statement in their record that they had met on November 16, the same day on which the canvassing board met, and continued in session with said board, is absolutely false. He refers to their record of adjournment on November 15, at which time they adjourned to the 21st. Perhaps the strongest point shown in the affidavit is the allegation that the board attempted to reject the returns from South Snohomish on the grounds that they were false and forged, while their genuineness had already been adjudicated and determined by the superior court. A point is also made of the fact that according to the returns of the canvassing board 6,161 votes were cast on the proposition, and that the number credited up by the commissioners themselves in favor of removal—2,680—is not three-fifths of the total vote cast. The case will probably come on for hearing before the 21st, the date fixed by the commissioners for the removal.