On February 9, 2018 I happened to be back in Washington State's Capital in Olympia helping lead the 2017 - 2018 cohort for Out In Front, an LGBTQ leadership development program, through the annual legislative advocacy day. Throughout the day we had State Senators and Representatives from the LGBTQ community come visit and talk about legislative processes, governmental advocacy and law making. Additionally we had members of the LGBTQ community who are leaders in state agencies and work as lobbyists talk about their work, advocacy and leadership in the jobs they perform.
Before ending the day we took the cohort around the Capital building, known by those working there as the "Leg (legislative) Building". This building, adorned by the Capital Dome, serves as the home for both the state Senate and House of Representatives, the Governor's Office and the Secretary of States Office. It was in this latter office that I was captivated by a display of an artifact of our state's history. Given that one of the duties of the Secretary of State is to certify election results for our State, they had on display an exact replica of Article VI of the State Constitution which was ratified in 1889, upon Washington's birth as a state of the United States of America.
At the very top of this document, Section 1 immediately struck me. As originally enacted our state enshrined sexism against women. The language of this section read as follows:
QUALIFICATIONS OF VOTERS - All male persons (emphasis added) of the age of twenty-one years or over, possessing the following qualifications, shall be entitled to vote at all elections: They shall be citizens of the United States; they shall have lived in the state one year, and in the county ninety days, and in the city, town, ward or precinct thirty days immediately preceding the election at which they offer to vote; they shall be able to read and speak the English language: Provided, That Indians not taxed shall never be allowed the elective franchise: And further provided, That this amendment shall not effect [affect] the right of franchise of any person who is now a qualified elector of this state. The legislature shall enact laws defining the manner of ascertaining the qualifications of voters as to their ability to read and speak the English language, and providing for punishment of persons voting or registering in violation of the provisions of this section.
It struck me first that only "male persons" were valid electors (voters) of our state. While I knew that the women's suffrage movement began in the country in 1848 with the women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, N.Y, and having been able to enjoy a full participation in our state's and nation's electoral processes each year since turning 18 in 1978, I was snapped back into the historical reality that these privileges were not always available to ALL citizens. So upon this renewed historical remembrance, I set upon some investigatory research into the women's right to vote in Washington State.
Quite interestingly I found that the peoples, specifically the men, of the Washington Territory were quite progressive when it came to their view of women in the mid and late 1800's. At the first territorial legislative assembly in 1854 the prospect of allowing women to vote was defeated by only one vote. Remember, in 1854 all those voting in the legislative assembly were men. In following years numerous attempts we made in the territorial period (that time prior to Washington's statehood in 1889) to grant women the right to vote, all of which were unsuccessful. Still it spoke to me that many men in positions of leadership were working to ensure the elective franchise to women, even though a majority of men still opposed it.
In 1877, women of the territory were granted the right to vote in the state, but only in School Board elections because of the sexist notion that education was considered the natural realm of women. Finally in 1883, women of territory were provided the full franchise to vote and did so in all elections from 1884 to 1887 and additionally were permitted to sit on juries. During this time, one King county precinct voted a woman in as a Justice of the Peace and another county precinct voted a woman as Constable. Unfortunately, a conservative Territorial Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the provisions allowing women to vote in 1887 because the title of the statute was invalid. The Territorial legislature immediately corrected the title but the Territorial Supreme Court later ruled in 1887 that the statute was unconstitutional because it conflicted with the federal laws of the United States, which did not permit women to be jurors because they were not qualified electors, a person allowed to vote in elections.
Upon the formation of Washington as a state of the United States of America, a constitutional convention was convened to establish the state's constitution in 1889. The argument for the right of women to be granted full voting rights was one of the liveliest topics of the convention with the male delegates closely divided on the issue. Ultimately the right for women to vote was not included in the ratified state constitution. Instead, the issue was submitted to male voters of the newly formed state in 1890 asking to add an additional article to the constitution. The referendum was voted down by a vote of 16,527 in favor and 34,513 opposed to women's right to vote in Washington state. However, Section 2 of Article VI to the state's constitution did continue the practice of allowing women to vote in school board elections.
SCHOOL ELECTIONS - FRANCHISE, HOW EXTENDED - The legislature may provide that there shall be no denial of the elective franchise at any school election on account of sex.
It was also during the later 1800's and early 1900's the national women's suffrage and women's right to vote movement was gathering speed and more support among the male voting population of the country. An Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was introduced in our nation's congress for ratification by 3/4ths of the states in 1878.
Champions of women's right to vote took various strategies to gaining this right. Some undertook the challenge of passing suffrage acts on a state by state basis, with nine western states, considered more progressive as compared to eastern and southern states, passing such legislation by 1912. Other, more militant, supporters took to parades, silent vigils and hunger strikes to raise the awareness of the cause. Often these, mostly women, were met with fierce resistance by opponents by being heckled, jailed and even having physical violence put upon them.
For the first decade of the State of Washington, women were not allowed to vote, except for the aforementioned school board elections. In 1909, the state legislature place a referendum on the ballot for a vote in 1910 of an amendment to the state constitution. This referendum asked voters, all of them male, if they wanted to amend Article VI of the states constitution and allow women to join them in full voting rights at the polls. This gave suffrage rights workers 20 months to organize, campaign and convince their male counterparts to vote for the state's women's right to vote.
In 1910 the referendum passed overwhelmingly by a vote of 52,299 in favor (63.8%) to 29,676 (36.2%) opposed. Article VI, Section 1 of the states constitution was amended to change the first line of the section from All Male Persons to All Persons and added a sentence to the end of the section that read There shall be no denial of the elective franchise at any election on account of sex.
This achievement was hailed across the nation by suffragists, as Washington became the 5th state in the nation, joining Wyoming (1869), Utah (1870), Colorado (1893) and Idaho (1896) in granting Women's Suffrage in their respective states. Additionally hailed, Washington became the first state in the nation of the new 20th century to grant Women's Suffrage.
On May 21, 1919, the nation's House of Representatives passed the 19th amendment to the country's constitution, and 2 weeks later, the Senate followed. When Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment on August 18, 1920, the amendment passed its final hurdle of obtaining the agreement of three-fourths of the states. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification on August 26, 1920, changing the face of the American electorate forever.
Today I am pleased to know I was born, raised and still live in a state that took a leadership role in Women being seen as full citizens of our country through granting them the right to vote.
https://ballotpedia.org/Article_VI,_Washington_State_Constitution
http://www.heraldnet.com/news/how-washington-women-won-the-right-to-vote/
https://books.google.com/books?id=yH5oAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA132&dq=washington+state+constitution+women%27s+right+to+vote&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjx8ejXjpzZAhVH1GMKHTZ5CMcQ6AEILDAA#v=onepage&q=washington%20state%20constitution%20women's%20right%20to%20vote&f=false
https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=63
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women%27s_suffrage_in_the_United_States
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