Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Item
Title
D10438-3
Date(s)
- 1940-11-12 (Creation)
Extent
Name of creator
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
In November of 1940, Pierce County Prosecutor Thor Tollefson, at far left, supervised the opening and counting of the absentee voters' ballots from the general election. A record number of absentee ballots, somewhere in the neighborhood of 2000, arrived from nearly every state in the union and Washington D.C. The ballots had to be sorted by precincts and districts and each ballot's signature on the outside had to be compared with applications on file. The 1940 election was especially tense because of the close gubernatorial race between Seattle Mayor Arthur Langlie and Democrat C.C. Dill of Spokane. Absentee ballots cemented Langlie's lead, although Dill refused to concede for several days. From L to R are: Thor Tollefson, County Republican Chairman John F. Buchanan, Frank Perry, personal representative of Arthur Langlie, Auditor S. Clifford Davis, L. G. Higgins, official counter for the Democrats and Vic Johnson, watching for C.C. Dill. (T. Times, 11-12-40, p. 1) ALBUM 4.
Ballots; Political elections--Tacoma--1940-1950; Tollefson, Thor C., 1901-1982; Buchanan, John F.; Berry, Frank; Davis, S. Clifford; Higgins, L.G.; Johnson, Vic;