The Ladies Turn Out First for Olympia's $40,000 School Bonds
The polls open in the Central School building on a bond issue for the city schools, and women are on hand casting ballots from the first hour.
The polls for the school bond election to float $40,000 worth of bonds opened this afternoon at 10 o'clock, in the Central school building, and will remain open until 8 p.m. Many ladies were on hand to cast a vote. From the interest taken there can scarcely be any doubt but that the question will be carried. At 2 p.m. 34 votes were cast, of which it was estimated that 30 were in favor of the proposition.
“Many ladies were on hand to cast a vote. From the interest taken there can scarcely be any doubt but that the question will be carried.”
Washington women had been granted the franchise in 1883 and stripped of it by the courts in 1887, but school elections remained one of the places they could still vote — and here they were, first through the door, deciding a $40,000 debt for the city's children. The same arithmetic argument plays out at every modern Olympia school levy: a small turnout decides a large sum, and the side that shows up early usually wins.
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