The Capital's Election Was Run by the Old Rules
A Walla Walla editor notes the irony: Olympia used the old ballot form after the legislature changed the law, and now the election's legality is in doubt.
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.
The last legislature amended the election laws by changing the form of the ballot to be used. At the recent election in Olympia the old law was followed and now the legality of the election is questioned. If such a thing happened in a small town remote from the state capital there would be some excuse; but to have it occur under the very roofs of the capitol and the state printing office makes it necessary to remark that those nearest the sun are in the greatest darkness.
“Those nearest the sun are in the greatest darkness.”
Ballot-form rules can still decide whether an election is certified or challenged, and election administrators are still accused of following old procedures after the law changes. Olympia's 1891 stumble is a small ancestor of today's fights over ballot design, deadlines and certification.
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