Woman Suffrage By Federal Constitutional Amendment
History
Woman Suffrage By Federal Constitutional Amendment
Women -- Suffrage -- United States
[Footnote A: Oregon, Nevada, South Carolina, Florida, Colorado,
California, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Massachusetts,
Mississippi, Nebraska, Pennsylvania.]
In Wisconsin suffrage referendum the suffrage ballot was separate and
pink. It was easy to teach the most illiterate how to vote "No" and
to check up returns with considerable accuracy. In New York there
were three ballots. The official ballot had emblems which easily
distinguished it. The other two were exactly alike in shape, size and
color and each contained three propositions: those which came from
the constitutional convention and the other those which came from the
Legislature. The orders went forth to vote down the constitutional
provisions and it was done by a majority of 482,000, or nearly
300,000 more than the majority against woman suffrage. On the
ballot containing the suffrage amendment, which was No. 1, there was
proposition No. 3, which all the political parties wanted carried and
to which no one objected. It could easily be found by all illiterates
as it contained more lines of printing, yet so difficult was it to
teach ignorant men to vote "Yes" on that one proposition that, despite
the fact that orders had gone forth to all the state that No. 3 was to
be carried, it barely squeezed through.
In Pennsylvania there are no emblems to distinguish the tickets and
on the large ballot the suffrage amendment was difficult to find by
an untutored voter. In probable consequence Pennsylvania polled the
largest proportional vote for the amendment of any eastern state. In
Massachusetts the ballot was small and the suffrage amendment could be
easily picked out by a bribed voter. In Iowa the suffrage ballot was
separate and yellow while the main ballots were white.
In the North Dakota referendum the regular ballot was long and
complicated and the suffrage ballot separate and small. It was easy to
teach the dullest illiterate how to vote "No." It might be said
that it would be equally easy to teach him to vote "Yes." True, but
suffragists never bribe. Both the briber and the illiterate are allies
of the opposition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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