The Right to Vote
Page 54
TABLE A.3 Chronology of Property Requirements for Suffrage: 1790-1855
TABLE A.4 Race and Citizenship Requirements for Suffrage: 1790-1855
TABLE A.5 Chonology of Race Exclusions: 1790-1855
TABLE A.6 Pauper Exclusions: 1790-1920
TABLE A.7 Suffrage Exclusions for Criminal Offenses: 1790-1857
TABLE A.8 Labor Force Changes in Selected States: 1820-1850
Sources: U.S. Census 1820, Aggregate Amount of Each Description of Persons in the United States (Washington, D.C. 1821), 1; U.S. Census 1850, Occupations of the Male Inhabitants, vol. 1 (Washington, D.C. 1853), lxvii-xxx; U.S. Census 1850, Compendium of the Seventh Census (Washington, D.C. 1854), 125-129.
TABLE A.9 Summary of Suffrage Requirements in Force: 1855
TABLE A.10 States with Tawpaying Requirements for Suffrage: 1870-1921
TABLE A.11 States with Property Requirements for Suffrage: 1870-1920
TABLE A.12 States with Special Provisions Affecting Aliens and Immigrants: 1870-1926
TABLE A.13 Literacy Requirements for Suffrage: 1870-1924
TABLE A.14 Residency Requirements for Suffrage: 1870-1923
TABLE A.15 Disfranchisement for Felons and Others Convicted of Crimes: Laws in Force, 1870-1920
TABLE A.16 Native-American Voting Rights: Laws in Force, 1870-1920
TABLE A.17 States and Territories Permitting Women to Vote in Elections Dealing with Schools Prior to the Nineteenth Amendment
State1 Date Enacted2
Kentucky 1838 (S)3: Widows and unmarried women who owned property subject to taxation for school purposes.
Michigan 1855 (S): Taxpayers.
Kansas 1861 (S)4
Colorado 1876 (C)
Minnesota 1878 (C)
Mississippi 1878 (S): “Patrons” of schools.
New Hampshire 1878 (S)
Massachusetts 1879 (S)
Mississippi 1880 (S): Heads of families.
New York 1880 (S)
Vermont 1880 (S)
Oregon 1882 (S)
Territory of Dakota 1883 (S)
Nebraska 1883 (S)
Wisconsin 1886 (S)
Territory of Arizona 1887 (S)
New Jersey 1887 (S)5
Idaho 1889 (C)
Montana 1889 (C)
North Dakota 1889 (C)
Territory of Oklahoma 1890 (S)
Washington 1890 (S)
Illinois 1891 (S)
Connecticut 1893 (S)
Kentucky 1893 (S): Widows and unmarried women who are taxpayers or have school-age children.
Ohio 1894 (S)
Iowa 1895 (S): Taxpayers.
Delaware 1898 (S): Taxpayers.
New Mexico 1910 (C)
Kentucky 1912 (S): Literate women.
1Does not include states with full suffrage for women.
2In some instances (e.g., in New Jersey, as indicated in n. 5), these laws were later modified or declared unconstitutional by state courts or legislatures. This table does not indicate all such modifications.
3(C) = constitution, (S) = statute.
4Although article 2, section 23 of the 1859 constitution was believed by some to enfranchise women in school elections, the Kansas Supreme Court decided otherwise in Wheeler v. Brady, 15 Kan. 26 (1875).
5Restricted by Landis v. Ashworth, 31 A. 1017 (New Jersey, 1895) and State v. Board of Education of Cranbury Township, 31 A. 1033 (New Jersey, 1895) to voting only on school appropriations, and not for officers.
TABLE A.18 States Permitting Women to Vote in Municipal Elections or on Tax and Bond Issues Prior to the Nineteenth Amendment
State1 Date Enacted
Kansas 1887 (S)2: Municipal.
Montana 1889 (C): Tax issues.
Michigan 1893 (S): Literate women in school, village, and city elections.3
Iowa 1894 (S): Municipal elections on any proposition to issue bonds or increase taxes.
Louisiana 1898 (C): Tax issues.
New York 1906 (S): Property owners on tax issues and in town meetings.
Michigan 1909 (S): Financial expenditures and bond issues; limited to owners of property assessed for taxes.
New York 1910 (S): Property owners on bond issues.
Illinois 1913 (S): Offices established by statute and for all officers of cities, villages, and towns, except police magistrates.
Florida 1915 (S): Municipal: for offices and on issues determined by city or town.
Indiana 1917 (S): County and municipal officers not provided for in the constitution, and for delegates to the Constitutional Convention.4
North Dakota 1917 (S): County surveyors, county constables, and all officers of cities, villages, and towns (except police magistrates and city justices of the peace) and upon all questions or propositions submitted to a vote of the electors of such municipalities or other political subdivisions.
Nebraska 1917 (S): Municipal officers.
Vermont 1917 (S): Municipal officers; must be a taxpayer.
1Does not include states with full suffrage for women.
2(C) = constitution, (S) = statute.
3Declared unconstitutional in Coffin v. Board of Election Commissioners of Detroit, 56 N.W. 567 (Mich. 1893).
4Statute declared unconstitutional by Indiana Supreme Court in Board of Election Commissioners of Indianapolis v. Knight, 117 N.E. 565 (Ind. 1917).
TABLE A.19 States Permitting Women to Vote in Presidential Elections Prior to the Nineteenth Amendment
State1 Date Enacted
Illinois 1913 (S)
Arkansas 1917 (S): Primary elections.
Indiana 1917 (S)2
Michigan 1917 (S)
Nebraska 1917 (S)
North Dakota 1917 (S)
Rhode Island 1917 (S)
Ohio 1917 (S)3
Texas 1918 (S): Primary elections and nominating conventions.4
Indiana 1919 (S)
Iowa 1919 (S)
Maine 1919 (S)
Minnesota 1919 (S)
Missouri 1919 (S)
Ohio 1919 (S)
Tennessee 1919 (S)
Wisconsin 1919 (S)
1Does not include states with full suffrage for women.
2Statute declared unconstitutional: see Table A.18.
3Law was suspended from operation by the filing of a referendum petition and subsequently was defeated by voters on 6 November 1917.
4Women exempt from poll tax required of men in 1918 election, but were required to pay the poll tax beginning 1 January 1919.
TABLE A.20 States and Territories Fully Enfranchising Women Prior to the Nineteenth Amendment
State Date Enacted
Territory of Wyoming 1869
Territory of Utah 18701
Territory of Washington 18832
Territory of Montana 1887
Wyoming 18893
Colorado 1893
Utah 18954
Idaho 1896
Arizona 19105
Washington 1910
California 1911
Kansas 1912
Oregon 1912
Territory of Alaska 1913
Montana 1914
Nevada 1914
New York 1917
Michigan 1918
Oklahoma 1918
South Dakota 1918
APPENDIX SOURCES
MULTISTATE SOURCES, TABLES A.1-A.16
Adams, Willi Paul, The First American Constitutions: Republican Ideology and the Making of the State Constitutions in the Revolutionary Era, Rita and Robert Kimber, trans. (Chapel Hill, NC, 1980).
Aylsworth, Leon, “The Passing of Alien Suffrage,” American Political Science Review 25 (February 1931): 114-116.
Evans, Taliesin, American Citizenship and the Right of Suffrage in the United States (Oakland, CA, 1892).
Green, Fletcher M., Constitutional Development in the South Atlantic States, 1776-1860: A Study in the Evolution of Democracy (Chapel Hill, NC, 1930).
Jones, Samuel, A Treatise on the Right of Suffrage
(Boston, 1842).
Kousser, J. Morgan, The Shaping of Southern Politics: Suffrage Restriction and the Establishment of the One-Party South, 1880-1910 (New Haven, CT, 1974).
Kruman, Marc S., “The Second American Party System and the Transformation of Revolutionary Republicanism,” Journal of the Early Republic 12, 4 (1992): 509-537.
Lowell, Kendrick, and Harold Salisbury, eds., General Constitutional and Statutory Provisions Relative to Suffrage Published by the Legislative Reference Bureau of the Rhode Island State Library (Providence, RI, 1912).
McCool, Daniel, “Indian Voting,” in Vine Deloria, Jr., ed., American Indian Policy in the Twentieth Century (Norman, OK, 1985), 105-133.
McGovney, Dudley O., The American Suffrage Medley: The Need for a National Uniform Suffrage (Chicago, 1949).
Native and Alien: The Naturalization Laws of the United States: Containing Also the Alien Laws of the State of New York (Rochester, NY, 1855).
Porter, Kirk H., A History of Suffrage in the United States (Chicago, 1918).
Raskin, Jamin B., “Legal Aliens, Local Citizens: The Historical Constitutional and Theoretical Meanings of Alien Suffrage,” University of Pennsylvania Law Review 141 (April 1993): 1391-1470.
“Restoring the Ex-Offenders Right to Vote: Background and Developments” (note), American Criminal Law Review 11 (1973): 721-770.
Rosberg, Gerald M., “Aliens and Equal Protection: Why Not the Right to Vote?” Michigan Law Review 75 (April-May 1977): 1092-1136.
Steinfeld, Robert J., “Property and Suffrage in the Early American Republic,” Stanford Law Review 41, 2 (January 1989): 335-376.
Swindler, William, ed., Sources and Documents of United States Constitutions, 11 vols. (Dobbs Ferry, NY, 1973-1988).
Thorpe, Francis, ed., Federal and State Constitutions, 7 vols. (Washington, DC, GPO: 1909).
Williamson, Chilton, American Suffrage: From Property to Democracy, 1760-1860 (Princeton, NJ, 1960).
STATE SOURCES, TABLES A.1-A.16
Alabama
McMillan, Malcolm C., Constitutional Development in Alabama, 1798-1901: A Study in Politics, the Negro, and Sectionalism (Chapel Hill, NC, 1955).
Ormond, John J., Arthur P. Bagby and George Goldthwaite, eds., The Code of Alabama (Montgomery, AL, 1852).
Arkansas
Chism, Ben B., ed., A Digest of the Election Laws of the State of Arkansas (Little Rock, 1891).
Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas (1894).
Gould, Josiah, ed., A Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas (Little Rock, 1858).
Journal of the Proceedings of the Convention Met to Form a Constitution and a System of State Government for the People of Arkansas (Little Rock, 1838).
California
Bowman, J. F., ed., Election Laws of the State of California (San Francisco, 1872).
General Election Laws of California, Compiled by the Legislative Counsel Bureau and Issued by the Secretary of State (Sacramento, 1918).
Waite, E. G., ed., The Election Laws Governing Primary, City, County, State, and Presidential Elections (Sacramento, 1892).
Colorado
Act of February 18, 1881, 1881 Colorado Laws 113, 114.
Act of March 26, 1891, ch. 28, 1891 Colorado Laws 160.
Colorado, General Laws, ch. 926 and 928 (1877).
Laws Passed at the Fourteenth Session of the General Assembly of the State of Colorado, Convened at Denver, the Seventh Day of January, 1903 (Denver, 1903).
Laws Passed at the Third Session of the General Assembly of the State of Colorado, Convened at Denver, on the Fifth Day of January, 1881 (Denver, 1881).
McClees, Nelson O., ed., Colorado Election Law, 1891-1893 (1893).
Connecticut
The General Statutes of the State of Connecticut (New Haven, 1866).
Journal of the Proceedings of the Convention of Delegates, Convened at Hartford, August 26, 1818, for the Purpose of Forming a Constitution of Civil Government for the People of the State of Connecticut (Hartford, 1902).
State of Connecticut Election Laws (1906).
Delaware
Delaware Session Laws 1891, chap. 38.
Laws of Delaware (Milford, 1898).
Laws of the State of Delaware (New Castle, 1797).
Manual of the Registration and Election Laws of the State of Delaware for the City of Wilmington (Dover, 1892).
Revised Statutes of Delaware, 1852 (Dover, 1852).
Revised Statutes of the State of Delaware (Wilmington, 1874).
Revised Statutes of the State of Delaware (Wilmington, 1893).
Florida
Act of February 27, 1877, ch. 3021, 1877 Fla. Laws 69.
The Acts and Resolutions Adopted by the Legislature of Florida at its First Session (1868) (Tallahassee, 1868).
“The Committee on the Rights of Suffrage and Qualification of Officers,” Territorial Florida Journalism, reproduced from the Floridian, 15 December 1838.
Georgia
Act of February 7, 1785, Ga. General Laws (1785).
Bryan v. Walton, 14 Ga. 185 (1853).
Clark, R. H., T. R. R. Cobb, and D. Irwin, eds., Code of the State of Georgia (Atlanta, 1861).
Idaho
Pinkham, A. J., ed., General Election Laws of the State of Idaho, Passed at the First Session of the Legislature and Approved February 25th, 1891 (Boise City, 1891).
Illinois
Act Regulating Elections, sec. 8, 1821 Illinois Laws 74, 77.
Act Regulating Elections, sec. 21, 1822 Illinois Laws 53, 61 (1823).
Act Relative to Criminal Jurisprudence, Illinois Rev. Code, sec. 162 (1827).
Cole, Arthur, ed., The Constitutional Debates of 1847 (Springfield, 1919).
Election Laws of the State of Illinois, Including the Act of 1865, Known as the “Registry” Law: The Act of 1872, Known as the “General Election” Law: The Act of 1891, Known as the “Australian Ballot” Law, with Forms and Instructions to Aid Election Officers in Carrying the Same into Effect (Springfield, 1892).
Gray, William S., John L. Dryer, and Rodney H. Brandon, eds., Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Illinois, Convened January 6, 1920, 5 vols. (Springfield, 1922).
Hurd, Harvey, ed., Revised Statutes of the State of Illinois, 1874, Comprising the Revised Acts of 1871-2 and 1873-4, Together with All Other General Statutes of the State, in Force on the First Day of July, 1874 (Springfield, 1874).
Hurd, Harvey, ed., Revised Statues of the State of Illinois 1908, Containing All the General Statutes of the State in Force January 1, 1909 (Chicago, 1909).
Journal of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Illinois, January 7, 1862 (Springfield, 1862).
Journal of the Convention Assembled at Springfield, June 7, 1847 for the Purpose of Altering, Amending, or Revising the Constitution of the State of Illinois (Springfield, 1847).
“Journal of the Illinois Constitutional Convention, 1818,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 6 (October 1913): 273.
Purple, N. H., ed., A Compilation of the Statutes of the State of Illinois, of a General Nature, in Force January 1, 1856, Collated with Reference to Decisions of the Supreme Court of Said State, and to Prior Laws Relating to the Same Subject Matter (Chicago, 1856).
Starr, Merritt, and Russell H. Curtis, eds., Annotated Statutes of the State of Illinois in Force January 1, 1885, vol. 1 (Chicago, 1885).
Woods, Harry, ed., Illinois Election Laws 1913 (Springfield, 1913).
Indiana
Dunn, J. P., ed., General Laws, ch. 47 (1879).
Indiana, Revised Manual of the Election Law of Indiana (Indianapolis, 1891).
Laws of the State of Indiana Passed at the Special Session, 1881 (Indianapolis, 1881).
The Revised Statutes of Indiana, collated and annotated by James S. Frazer, John H. Stotsenburg, and David Turpie (Chicago, 1881).
The Revised Statutes of the State of Indiana (Indianapolis, 1843).
The Revised Statutes of the State of Indiana, vol. 1 (Indiana
polis, 1852).
The Statutes of the State of Indiana: Containing the Revised Statutes of 1852 (Indianapolis, 1870).
Kansas
Act of February 22, 1905, ch. 215, 1905 Kan. Laws 306, 312, 314.
State ex rel. Gilson v. Monahan, 72 Kan. 492 (1905).
Kentucky
Act of June 30, 1892, ch. 65, art. 1, sec. 5, 1892 Ky. Acts 106, 107.
Acts of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky (Frankfort, 1851).
Bullitt, Joshua F., and John Feland, The General Statutes of Kentucky, with notes of decisions concerning the Constitution and other laws thereof (Louisville, 1887).
Bullock, Edward I., and William Johnson, eds., The General Statutes of the Commonwealth of Kentucky (Frankfort, 1873).
Kentucky, General Laws, ch. 1439-1440, 1478-1480 (1894).
Revised Statutes of Kentucky (Frankfort, 1852).
Stanton, Richard H., The Revised Statutes of Kentucky (Cincinnati, OH, 1860).
Maine
Act of February 6, 1833, ch. 49, sec. 1, 1833 Me. Laws 51-52.
Act of March 19, 1821, ch. 114, sec. 1, 1834 Me. Laws 549-556.
Act of March 25, 1864, ch. 278, 1864 Me. Laws 209.
The Debates and Journal of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Maine, 1819-1820 (Augusta, 1894).
Maryland
Act of April 8, 1908, ch. 545, sec. 4, 1908 Md. Laws 347-348.
Pole, J. R., “Suffrage and Representation in Maryland from 1776 to 1810: A Statistical Note and Some Reflections,” in Joel H. Silbey and Samuel T. McSeveney, eds., Voters, Parties, and Elections: Quantitative Essays in the History of American Popular Voting Behavior (Lexington, MA, 1972), 61-71.