Seattle's Election Was Supposed to Draw 8,000. Then the Fraud Reports Started.
With 10,841 names on the rolls, officials expected a big vote—but blank registration certificates were circulating, and Tacoma police found Seattle papers on men arrested as hobos.
The vote at the municipal election in Seattle will probably reach 8,000, although 10,841 names have been registered. In 1890 that city cast 2,725 fewer votes than the registration. Mayor Hall lately told the city council that large numbers of the floating population of 1890 had left the city, and the Daily Telegraph a week ago charged that fraudulent registration was being carried on. The Post-Intelligencer of the 25th referred editorially to the fact that blank certificates of registration, stamped with the signature of the city clerk, were in circulation—whether genuine or not does not appear. Several hobos were arrested in Tacoma on Saturday, and among their effects were Seattle certificates of registration.
“Blank certificates of registration, stamped with the signature of the city clerk, were in circulation—whether genuine or not does not appear.”
The 1892 story has a familiar shape: inflated rolls, suspicions of fraudulent registration, and last-minute discoveries of paper certificates. Then as now, election administration and public trust were local issues with outsized consequences.
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