[LWVNM Action] 100 years of gender equality at the ballot box - Oped in

[E.K. VanWie]

Thanks, Karen.  You shared critical information about the struggles for voting rights.Eileen

E.K. VanWie, Ed.D.
Email: vanwieek at yahoo.com

"We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity."                                              
               Frances Ellen Watkins Harper 1866  

"To me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality."        Alice Paul - Circa 1917

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
      Attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt - Circa 1940  
 

    On Wednesday, August 26, 2020, 9:17:12 AM MDT, Richard Mason <dickmasonnm at gmail.com> wrote:  
 
 
https://www.abqjournal.com/1490122/100-years-of-gender-equality-at-the-ballot-box.html


100 years of gender equality at theballot box

By Karen M. Douglas / Co-president, League Of Women Voters OfCentral New Mexico 

Wednesday, August 26th, 2020 at 12:02am – ABQ Journal

Today America celebratesWomen’s Equality Day. This day marks the national centennial of passage of the19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: “The right of citizens to vote shallnot be denied or abridged by the U.S. or any state because of sex.”

This milestone for thewomen’s suffrage movement occurred following ratification by Tennessee, the36th state required for the three-fourths majority. Aug. 26 is observed as the100th anniversary of the women’s suffrage amendment, which was first introducedin 1878 and certified by the U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby,permitting 26 million women to participate in the 1920 presidential election.Women’s contributions to the Great War effort were vital to impress upon malevoters and elected officials women’s importance to the continued success of ourdemocracy. 

Each state has its uniquesuffrage history. Women’s right to vote was raised occasionally in theTerritory of New Mexico because several Western states pioneered the practice.Thousands of women and men in New Mexico worked together to build support forsuffrage between 1911 and 1920. On Feb. 21, 1920, the amendment was ratified inNew Mexico in a special legislative session. The rich history of voting rightsin New Mexico and nationally is explored in Megan Kamerick’s four podcasts atwww.newmexicopbs.org/new-mexico-and-the-vote-podcast/. 

Expansion of the right tovote has a long and difficult history and wasn’t complete in 1920 or eventoday. It took much longer for disenfranchised minority groups to gain votingrights – only white women were granted the right to vote during 1920, withcontinuing struggles by Black women and all Native Americans. 

President Coolidge signed theIndian Citizenship Act in 1924, permitting Native Americans who were not livingon reservations the right to vote. It took Miguel Trujillo Jr., who was deniedvoting rights after fighting in WWII, to win a N.M. Supreme Court decisionrecognizing the right of all Native Americans to vote. Most Black women’sstruggle for the vote was not obtained until the passage of the 1965 VotingRights Act. 

This racial disparitycontinues today by voter suppression when there are an inadequate number ofpolling places in minority communities or restricted polling place hours andlimited Postal Service availability for absentee voting. Minorities still seekequality in the American workplace and representative employment in professionsproviding both recognition and an equal share in the rewards from our nationalprosperity. This historic milestone marking white women’s earning the right tovote only reminds us of the many national challenges we Americans face as thisnation progresses toward a more just and inclusive democracy. 

2020 also marks the 100thanniversary of the League of Women Voters, which formed from the NationalAmerican Women’s Suffrage Association in Chicago on Feb. 14, 1920. From itsinception, LWV focused on registering the new women electorate to vote andpromoting an understanding of governmental policies, and our mission continuesto educate voters and protect voting rights for everyone amidst this pandemic. 

In 2020, LWVNM introduced amore extensive online resource – www.Vote411.org – enabling voters to accesscandidate responses for all races in Bernalillo, Torrance, Sandoval andValencia counties. On Sept. 15, each citizen may view their own personal ballotfollowing entry of their address to access statewide races, discussion of bondissues and judicial candidates in this online voting guide. 
LWVNM is monitoring any issues which could hamperabsentee ballot return or suppress voter participation in the upcoming electionand will continue to be vocal when concerns regarding fair elections and voteraccess warrant. The League of Women Voters of Central N.M. will publish hardcopies of the voter guide in the beginning of October. Use _______________________________________________
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