Ian’s Legal Fact of the Week 3/24/14: The 19th Amendment

As the Constitution gave power to the states to determine voting qualifications, prior to 1910 no states allowed women to vote. This changed with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, which prohibited United States citizens from being denied the right to vote on the basis of gender. The Amendment was originally introduced in Congress in 1878 but not formally ratified until 1920. Wisconsin was the first state to vote to ratify, in June 1919; and the Amendment became official with Tennessee’s vote in August 1920, thereby making the presidential election of November 1920 the first in which women across the country could vote. That election saw Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge on the Republican ticket defeat James M. Cox and Franklin D. Roosevelt on the Democratic ticket. The 48th and final state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment, Mississippi, did so in 1984. Alaska and Hawaii were not states at the time the Amendment was ratified and therefore cannot vote to do so.

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Ian’s Legal Fact of the Week 3/24/14: The 19th Amendment — 1 Comment

  1. Hi– came across your writing through BU’s twitter feed and just wanted to say that I’ve enjoyed following it! look forward to reading more of your thoughts on the law in the months to come.