On September 14, 1938, the people of Milton, Washington elected Boston Curtis to be their Republican precinct committeeman during the primary election. He won by 51 votes. But all was not as it seemed…

The problem was that Boston Curtis was a mule. It turns out that Kenneth Simmons, the Democratic mayor of Milton arranged the whole thing to both embarrass the Republican party and to show that most people have no clue who they are voting for.

A check of the election records proved that everything was on the up-and-up. The mule had signed the filing notice with his hoofprint and Mayor Simmons signed off as a witness because the applicant was unable to do so himself.

As for the Boston Curtis name, the mule’s real name was Boston and his owner’s last name was Curtis.