The Saloon Men Take Newport's Dry Vote to Court
A five-man complaint asks a Superior Court judge to void Newport's local option election — not on the merits, but because the petition never named the precincts of the men who signed it.
Joseph Grinstead, of Colville, attorney for the complainants, has served notice of suit on Town Clerk Edward Britton, citing him to appear in Superior Court at Colville on Friday, Oct. 1, to show cause why an order should not issue from that court declaring invalid the recent local option election of Newport.
The complaint is signed by Messrs. John Koch, Max Weinkauff, J. R. Barry, A. L. Hies and C. A. Fiedler.
The result of the election is contested on the ground that the petition for the election was faulty, the wording of the allegation in the complaint being as follows:
"That said petition was and is void and illegal and of no effect, in that it did not contain the name of the precinct of any of the signers thereof."
Mr. Britton is cited to appear as agent of the town of Newport, and the town council took action on the matter at the regular meeting on Tuesday evening, instructing Mr. Britton to engage an attorney and make answer to the complaint.
“"That said petition was and is void and illegal and of no effect, in that it did not contain the name of the precinct of any of the signers thereof."”
A year before statewide Prohibition, local option was the front line of the temperance war, and Newport's fight turned on paperwork: whether each signer's precinct was written down. Ballot measures still live or die on signature and form challenges today — the will of the voters can be undone by the shape of the petition that put it there.
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