In 1913 a Fusion committee of Republicans and independent Democrats nominated and secured the election of the recent New York City administration. Mr. Mitchel, the mayor, was elected by a large majority partly because of the death of one of his opponents, Mr. Gaynor, just before the election took place. It is probable that Mitchel would have been beaten but for this event. On November 6 last, the city voted to substitute for this Fusion administration one made up wholly of Democrats, and almost wholly of the nominees of Tammany Hall. Hylan, the Democratic candidate, received 297,000 votes; Mitchel, 149,000; Hillquit, Socialist, 142,000; and Bennett, organization Republican, 53,000. The ballot used was of the office group type, with party emblems. Twenty-two other offices, in addition to that of the mayor, were filled at the same election, and the voting for other offices seems to have been fairly consistent with the support of the candidates for the post of mayor. The form of the ballot does not seem to have had any appreciable effect on the result; and it is doubtful whether preferential voting in this case would have changed the result in a single case.

In the Boston mayoralty election on December 18, the reform element won, ex-Congressman Andrew J. Peters, formerly assistant secretary of the treasury, being elected mayor by a plurality of about 10,000 voters over Mayor Curley, his nearest opponent in a bitter three-cornered fight. The victory of Mr. Peters, regarded as a representative of the Back Bay and business elements of the city, was due in large measure to the strong run made by Congressman James A. Gallivan, who by his vigorous “anti-gang” campaign against Mayor Curley drew from the latter many votes which doubtless could not have been attracted to any candidate regarded as “high-brow;” he ran only 10,000 votes behind Mayor Curley.