Ballot Stuffing01

 

WAUPACA REPUBLICAN

March 11, 1887

 

 

            While on the train the other morning, we fell in with a gentleman who was a resident of Weyauwega thirty years ago.  Speaking of the place and the election which decided that Waupaca should be the county seat, he said that Waupaca secured the vote by sending women, dressed in men’s clothes, to the polls, who voted in its favor.  Brother Patchen, you might add the above to your catalogue of crimes committed by the city of sand and potatoes.                                                           – Weyauwega Chronicle.

            The Chronicle has been “stuffed.”  Waupaca had no MEN’S clothes in those days.  The vote was carried by “seeping majorities” returned from northwestern townships of the county in which at the time not a settler resided.  The recent correction (!) of the county records is no new feature in Waupaca politics.                                                                                                                         -  New London Times.

            The REPUBLICAN  is not very versed in the early history of the county seat troubles, but according to Dana Dewey’s early history when the boat loads of imported voters commenced to stuff the ballot-boxes in opposition to this hamlet, Waupaca proved herself equal to the emergency.  Don’t forget it boys, Waupaca has a good class of citizens, honest, enterprising, and law-abiding.