The Surprise Ballot: How Women Upended Seattle Politics in 1887

It is now three years since woman suffrage has been granted to the women of Washington territory. The privilege of voting at school elections had been granted some years before, but here, as in many other places where women have been permitted to participate in the school elections only, very little interest was manifested. When the bill securing full, complete enfranchisement was passed without any special effort being made or influence used that had not been brought to bear on previous legislatures, many thought it would fall stillborn—that as the great mass of the women had not asked for it, they did not want it, and would not avail themselves of the privilege and power conferred. But there were a number of surprises to follow, and the sweeping away of this decision was to be one of the first.

The first election in Seattle, after the passage of the suffrage bill, was a municipal election, requiring registration. Before the registration books were opened it was said so frequently in the streets and at the places where political manipulators do congregate, that the women would not register; that some of the warmest friends of the movement, both men and women, feared that there would not be fifty women register, and dared not hope for more than 100. But at the close of the registration it was discovered that nearly one-third of the entire number registered were women. The measure of the surprise will be understood. And when election day came, the women voted. The result of that contest was a victory for the people, the majority of whom were not indebted to any saloon influence for their election. This was a new departure.