The 1905 election was the first time voting machines were used, which permitted the voter to cast the entire Union Labor ticket. Ruef's political machine gradually gained control of the Chief of Police, the Board of Supervisors, and several judges. But shortly after the 1905 election, his choice for District Attorney, William L. Langton, began enforcing vice laws, largely ignored until then. Ever since the gold rush of 1849, San Francisco had a reputation as an open town, and the Barbary Coast's notorious dance halls, brothels and barely concealed gambling dens attracted money and people from across the West.