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How the West Was Run: A Look Inside a Wild West Election

By Sophia Ulmer

Key Takeaways

  • Ballots were counted by local officials and volunteers
  • Native Americans were not considered U.S. citizens until 1924
  • By 1848, Texas, Wisconsin and Iowa were added to the electoral map

Asked to name a tenet of democracy, many would say “elections.” The pleasure we find in pulling the curtain, pushing our precious buttons, and claiming the I VOTED! sticker is matched only by the subsequent humility found in the nail-biting, finger-drumming, foot-tapping wait for the results. Technology streamlines the casting and counting of ballots more than ever, but how were elections run in the early West? What was the political climate of the region, and how was a fair and accurate electoral process implemented in an era marked by anarchy?

In the 1800s, boomtowns sprouted like rogue whiskers across the frontier, often outpacing formal law and order. The ensuing environment was one in which ideas about the social contract were up for interpretation, this dilemma a common one in Western narratives. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance—starring John Wayne and James Stewart (1962)—grapples with civil philosophy and depicts how an election may have been run in the early West.

Initially, communities such as TMWSLV’s fictional Shinbone had few legal institutions and relied on self-regulation or “frontier justice”—in essence, vigilantism. Local roles like town marshal were sometimes self-appointed, but their authority was limited and often based on personal influence. In the film, the marshal is portrayed as an ineffectual chump against outlaw Liberty Valance, while rancher/town hunk Tom Doniphon (Wayne) and newcomer Ransom Stoddard (Stewart) are united in their goal to stop the notorious desperado. However, they disagree on the method: Doniphon favors brute force, while Stoddard—an attorney—is resolved to use the power of the law. Meanwhile, the unnamed territory in which Shinbone is located considers statehood, and a scene in the film’s second act glimpses how it may have been to vote in the Wild West.

Ballots were counted by local officials and volunteers, who managed other logistics such as polling places: central, accessible, public spaces such as town halls or, as seen in TMWSLV, saloons. The secret ballot, now standard, was not always used in the early days. Paper ballots, when used, were cast and counted manually, with voters publicly declaring their choices. In TMWSLV, Doniphon refuses Stoddard’s nomination during a town meeting to elect delegates for a convention on statehood—a nomination Stoddard himself eventually accepts. Eventually, as the need for confidentiality and fairness in elections became recognized, more private methods for casting a vote were adopted.

Due to the economic power of some female business and landowners (there existed many wealthy Miss Kittys), it only made sense that some women in the West were more likely to have been allowed at the polls. The Wyoming and Utah territories were the first to grant women the right—in 1869 and 1870, respectively. While later revoked in Utah in 1887, it was reinstated in 1895, two years after Colorado and one before Idaho. In Washington state, women voted in 1910, 10 years before the 19th Amendment was passed.

The West was racially diverse, especially after the Civil War. Black men could vote after the 1870 ratification of the 15th Amendment, though many states effectively disenfranchised them with literacy tests and poll taxes. Native Americans were not considered U.S. citizens until the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act, but even then, many states found ways to keep indigenous people from voting until the mid-20th century.

The political climate of the West included the major parties, but also saw the emergence of various third parties and local political movements that reflected the unique needs and challenges of frontier life. With its emphasis on states’ rights, Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic party (though its views align more with modern-day Republicans) dominated national politics in the early 1800s, especially in the South. In 1820, the voting map expanded to include Illinois, Alabama, Mississippi, and Missouri—the first state besides Louisiana west of the Mississippi River—and eight years later, the election of Andrew Jackson marked a major pivot in American politics.

Jackson was a populist Democrat from the frontier who—unlike Jefferson, who championed agrarianism and limited government—emphasized majority rule, expanded suffrage for white men, and a stronger executive branch. His election both exemplified the rise of the “common man” in politics and exposed growing regional tensions, and his presidency was contentious due to inhumane policies such as the Indian Removal Act. His veto of the renewal of the Charter of the Second Bank (he viewed it as a product of Eastern, moneyed interests) led to the rise of a new political party, the Whigs.

Largely composed of Westerners and Northerners, the Whigs opposed the Mexican-American War and expansion farther West—at the time, beyond the Mississippi River. (Arkansas was added to in 1836.) However, Whigs were pro-business and pushed to use government power to improve the economy and develop new territories (Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin) through improvements in roads, canals and railroad networks to and from major Atlantic markets. Although Democrats opposed these programs, they did like the idea of westward expansion.

By 1848, Texas, Wisconsin and Iowa were added to the electoral map, followed by California in 1852. However, policies concerning slavery were a major issue. The Whigs, for example, had by the late 1840s divided into “Conscience” and “Cotton” factions. Then, in 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise and led to a violent uprising known as “Bleeding Kansas.” (In short, the Missouri Compromise admitted Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state.) Both supporters and opponents in the East were concerned that new states would alter the political balance, and pro- and anti-slavery activists flooded the territories.

By the 1856 election, the American Party (a.k.a. the Know-Nothings) and the Republican Party were formed. After four years, Abraham Lincoln would be leading the Republicans, and by 1868, the party experienced landslide wins. Texas would be the only state to maintain its commitment to Democrats even when doing so was out of vogue with the rest of the region, such as in 1872 and 1876. Indeed, the Civil War seemed to have been a major shift in the political attitudes of Westerners, whose allegiance shifted from a Southern sentiment to a Northern one—until the election of 1892.

By the end of the 19th century, the Populists, or People’s Party, had gained considerable traction. By representing farmers and laborers, their platform resonated with many in the frontier regions. In 1892, Populist presidential candidate James B. Weaver won 22 of 444 electoral votes, all from Western states. (Grover Cleveland, the Democrat, won the election.)

Neither of today’s major parties encapsulates the ethos of the West, and truth be told, most frontier folks were more focused on survival than politics, perhaps even seeking to escape the political headaches of the East. Yet, the political evolution of the frontier was one of grit and transformation. Westerns can be more than gunslingers—they reflect a country’s evolving civic philosophy, and understanding the political evolution of the frontier can add new layers of depth to classic tales. Next time you watch a Western, consider how the politics of the time shaped the world portrayed on screen, and wonder: How might a time-traveling cowboy vote today?

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