The Washington Territorial Assembly, as the newly created area's bicameral legislature, convened the following year.

The legislature represented settlers from the Strait of Juan de Fuca to modern Montana.

From nearly the start of the territory, arguments over giving women the right to vote dogged legislative proceedings.

In 1871 Susan B. Anthony and Thurston County Representative Daniel Bigelow addressed the legislature on the issue.

In 1883, the issue returned to the floor, this time with the Territorial Assembly successfully passing universal suffrage for women.

After two failed voter referendums in 1889 and 1897, activism led by Emma Smith DeVoe and May Arkwright Hutton, among others, led the state legislature to approve the state constitutional amendment granting full female voting rights, which Washington's (male) voters ratified in 1910 by a vote of 52,299 to 29,676.

Legislators also can call themselves into special session by a two-thirds vote by both the House of Representatives and the State Senate.

Debates within both the House and Senate, as well as committee meetings and other special events within or relating to the legislature are broadcast throughout Washington on TVW, the state public affairs network.