The Great Representation Scandal of 1886
A look back at how political gerrymandering in Washington Territory left voters with wildly unequal voices in their own government.
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.
In the creation of new counties at the late Legislative session, Franklin and Adams were carved out of Whitman; Lincoln and Douglas were taken from Spokane, Asotin from Garfield, Skagit from Whatcom and Kittitas from Yakima. No change was made in the Legislative apportionment. The fractional ownership of the people of the several counties in their councilmen is thus made somewhat complex. The evident injustice of an apportionment under which a vote in one council district represents in law-making power over four votes in another district is too plain for controversy. The Legislative representation of the Territory should be increased to at least sixty members—twenty in the Council and forty in the Assembly—and a reapportionment made upon the basis of the vote of 1884. If Washington is to remain a Territory, it should at least be afforded proper facilities for exercising that modicum of self-governing power conceded and stipulated under the organic act. The needs of different sections of this great Territory are varied. Each county, if possible, should be represented in the Legislature. Certainly the consolidation of six counties into a single Council district is neither just nor expedient.
“The evident injustice of an apportionment under which a vote in one council district represents in law-making power over four votes in another district is too plain for controversy.”
This 1886 editorial highlights the chronic frustration with political representation that has haunted Washington for over a century. Just as residents of the 1880s argued that geography and rapid population shifts rendered their government unresponsive, modern Washingtonians continue to grapple with debates over district equity and the influence of population centers versus rural counties.
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