Winners chased a loser through Bristol after he fled with the election results.
Comedian Groucho Marx must have been channeling grassroots democracy in Bucks County’s 54 municipalities when he famously noted, “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.”
In my time as a political reporter, I’ve witnessed a Democratic gadfly’s husband in Falls go after another Democrat with a chair raised over his head. At a county GOP post-election celebration in Doylestown, I took notes when a fist-fight broke out. I’ve also covered government meetings in Lower Bucks where police were called to prevent mayhem. In one case, the conduct of public officials was so outrageous it had the press corps laughing and me commenting to a Trenton Times colleague, “You could almost write anything and it’d be true.” So I wrote my account in a creative way – a 4-act play. Readers loved it.
Testy political skirmishes dot our homespun democracy. One legendary account concerns the night a sore loser in Bristol literally tried to steal an election by making off with the ballot box. He tossed it to a cohort from an second floor window in the old borough hall that once stood in the middle of Market Street fronting Radcliffe Street. What distinguished the narrow two-story brick building was its imposing cupola with a clock and a ground floor that served as a jail. The second floor with its large windows is where elections were conducted as well as official town meetings until the 1930s when a larger hall was constructed on Pond Street.
IIiIn this case, passions were at fever pitch in days leading up to Democrats choosing delegates to the party’s county convention in Doylestown. A special election was set for Saturday, Sept. 21, 1878 in Bristol. The Demos were split between two fierce factions divided along generational lines. Each had its own set of delegates on the ballot – Young Democracy on one side, Old Democracy (also called “The Ring Combine”) on the other.
The Ring, according to witnesses, fought desperately to ensure a victory by any means possible. That included barring two Young Democracy representatives as “visiting statesmen” to monitor the election. The county party chairman got wind of the plan and sent a letter authorizing the reps to stand their ground.
When the poll closed that evening, Young Democracy sensed victory as the election board convened to begin the vote count. The Ring member of the board demanded Young Democracy observers leave. They refused. The board summoned Constable Louderbough to throw them out. They wouldn’t budge.
The Ring member stood up and pretended to reconsider his stance. As he moved toward the back of the room, he suddenly grabbed the ballot box and tossed it out the rear window. Down below, a colleague caught it and bolted. Young Democracy observers shouted an alarm. A crowd of supporters in front of the building raced to the back. Others jumped out the window in hot pursuit. “Before the ballot box thief got very far, he was headed off by one of the Young Democracy,” reported the local newspaper. “In an instant the ballot box was taken from the culprit, and he was knocked to the ground. When he attempted to rise, twice in succession he was laid out again, but finally was taken in charge by Policeman Saxton who took him to the Cottage Hotel in a rather damaged condition.”
At borough hall, election board members feared the mob would come after them. They hastily fled, blowing out the gas-lit lanterns without turning off the supply. Fortunately, that was discovered before the gas built up when the Young Democracy crowd returned to ensure a fair count of the votes. The Democrats vainly looked for the election board. Left no recourse, Young Democracy opened the recovered ballot box and began the count. Out of 304 votes cast, Young Democracy’s slate tallied 172 to Old Democracy’s 132. Youth had been served!
As news percolated outside, an enthusiastic crowd cheered. A reporter following the action noted, “A large delegation of them got together and with fife and drum made a ‘royal progress’ through the town, paying particular attention to stop before the residences of the ballot box thieves and others of the same party, and serenaded them with their fine instrumental music, accompanied by vocal strains of very significant sentiments. The excitement continued until after midnight, and all the next day groups of men were to be seen upon the streets, discussing the proceedings of the night before and upon all hands, the action of the ‘Ring’ in stealing the ballot box was condemned in the strongest manner.”
For at least the next 30 years, residents of Bristol looked back at the great ballot box caper on 1878 as the most exciting election ever held in the borough.
Sources include the “History of Bristol Borough in the County of Bucks, State of Pennsylvania Anciently Known as ‘Buckingham’ Being the Third Oldest Town and Second Chartered Borough in Pennsylvania” by Doron Green published in 1911; also thanks to Bristol historian Harold Michener plus Grundy Library archivist Eric Walerko; and coverage of the incident in the Bucks County Gazette newspaper of September 1879.