The 1895 Plan to Photograph Suspected Voters at the Polls
A Washington legislator proposed stationing photographers at polling places to snap 'doubtful voters' and preserve evidence against repeaters.
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.
Representative Blue at the Washington legislature has a new scheme to prevent repeating at elections. He proposes to have snap shots of doubtful voters taken by a photographer stationed at each polling place, and will introduce a bill to that end. He thus argues in favor of his novel scheme: 'The great difficulty in bringing repeaters to justice is, of course, in establishing their identity. I propose that representatives of political parties shall be given opportunity to stand at the polls at polling places, camera in hand, and take a snap shot of a stranger who comes up to vote. If a man attempts to vote who is suspected of being a repeater his photograph may be taken on the spot, thus preserving evidence if the legality of the vote is questioned.'
“The great difficulty in bringing repeaters to justice is, of course, in establishing their identity.”
The proposal anticipates modern fights over voter ID, poll surveillance and election-fraud claims—except with a photographer waiting at each polling place. It is a reminder that new technology has long been drafted into arguments about who gets to vote and how to prove identity.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.