The City That Beat the Fraud: Seattle’s Census Integrity
While Portland faces a third recount for dishonesty and Salem inflates its numbers with transient workers, Seattle and Tacoma emerge from the federal census audit with clean records.
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.
SEATTLE WAS FAIR. Her Census Unquestioned by the Department.
WASHINGTON CITY, Jan. 23.—[Special.]—Superintendent Porter has issued a bulletin on the progress of the work in completing the census, in which a very interesting statement is made as to the result of the re-enumeration made in various places.
In nearly every case the second count was found to contain evidences of fraud. Multnomah county, Or., which includes Portland, was the only county in the United States entitled to a re-enumeration. The second count was begun in August and was completed later, and the total population was reported at [illegible] as against 61,773 in the June enumeration. There was clearly dishonest work in this enumeration, and its integrity was so seriously impeached that a third count is contemplated.
At the same time there was a recount in Salem, Or., and a gain of over 3,000 was shown, but the accuracy of the work is discredited by the positive statement that a large number of hop-pickers temporarily in Salem were enumerated, and that in their real to increase Salem's numbers the proper boundaries were not observed.
In Seattle and Tacoma, where recounts were ordered, the figures were swelled in both cities, but there is no charge of fraud.
This 1891 report highlights a moment of civic pride for Seattle during the Gilded Age, contrasting its administrative integrity with the political corruption often associated with neighboring Oregon. It serves as an early example of how population counts were weaponized for political power and resources—a struggle that continues today in debates over redistricting and census accuracy.
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