Arizona Measure Nos. 300-301, Women's Suffrage and Right to Hold Office Amendment (1912)
| Arizona Women's Suffrage Amendment | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 5, 1912 | |
| Topic Suffrage | |
Status Approved | |
| Type Constitutional amendment | Origin Citizens |
Arizona Measure Nos. 300-301 was on the ballot as an initiated constitutional amendment in Arizona on November 5, 1912. It was approved.
A "yes" vote supported this state constitutional amendment to provide women with the right to vote and hold public office. |
A "no" vote opposed this state constitutional amendment to provide women with the right to vote and hold public office. |
Election results
|
Arizona Measure Nos. 300-301 |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Result | Votes | Percentage | ||
|
|
13,442 | 68.43% | ||
| No | 6,202 | 31.57% | ||
Text of measure
Ballot title
The ballot title for Measure Nos. 300-301 was as follows:
| “ | To amend Sections 2 and 15 of Article VII of the Constitution of the State of Arizona, granting to the citizens of the State of Arizona, regardless of sex, the right of suffrage and the right to hold public office. | ” |
Full Text
The full text of this measure is available here.
Constitutional changes
- See also: Article 7, Arizona Constitution
The ballot measure amended Article 2 and Article 7 of the Arizona Constitution. The following underlined text was added:
Note: Hover over the text and scroll to see the full text.
Section 2. No person shall be entitled to vote at any general election, or for any office that now is, or hereafter may be, elective by the people, or upon any question which may be submitted to a vote of the people, unless such person be a citizen of the United States of the age of twenty-one years or over, and shall have resided in the State one year immediately preceding such election. The word "citizen" shall include persons of the male and female sex.
The rights of citizens of the United States to vote and hold office shall not be denied or abridged by the state, or any political division or municipality thereof, on' account of sex, and the right to register, to vote and to hold office under any law now in effect, or which may hereafter be enacted, is hereby extended to, and conferred upon males and females alike.
No person under guardianship, non compos mentis, or insane, shall be qualified to vote at any election, nor shall any person convicted of treason or felony, be qualified to vote at any election unless restored to civil rights.
Section 15. Every person elected or appointed to any office of trust or profit under the authority of the state, or any political division or any municipality thereof, shall be a qualified elector of the political division or municipality in which said person shall be elected or appointed.[1]
Background
State women's suffrage ballot measures
- See also: State women's suffrage ballot measures
The 19th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was ratified on August 18, 1920. The 19th Amendment prohibited the government from denying or abridging the right to vote on account of sex. Therefore, women were guaranteed the right to vote in the U.S. Constitution.
Before the 19th Amendment, the women's suffrage movement also campaigned for changes to state constitutions to provide women with a right to vote. Suffragists Carrie Chapman Catt and Nettie Rogers Shuler, in their book Woman Suffrage and Politics (1923), wrote that state ballot measures "spun the main thread of suffrage activity" in the movement's earlier years and were seen as stepping stones to national suffrage. "I don't know the exact number of States we shall have to have," said Susan B. Anthony, "but I do know that there will come a day when that number will automatically and resistlessly act on the Congress of the United States to compel the submission of a federal suffrage amendment." When asked about federal support for women's suffrage in 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt advised the suffrage movement to "Go, get another State."[2]
Between 1867 and August 18, 1920, 54 ballot measures to grant women's suffrage were on the ballot in 30 states. Fifteen (15) of the ballot measures were approved, giving women the right to vote in 15 states. Since women did not have suffrage until after the ballot measures were approved, male voters decided the outcome of suffrage ballot measures.
Map of states that voted on suffrage ballot measures
The following is a map of which states approved and which states rejected women's suffrage ballot measures before the 19th Amendment. Suffrage was on the ballot at least once in 30 of 48 states (Alaska and Hawaii were not states until 1959). Of the 15 states that passed suffrage ballot measures, eight failed to pass measures on their first attempts. In Oregon and South Dakota, for example, suffrage measures were placed before voters at six elections before one was passed. In Utah and Wyoming, voters decided and approved women's suffrage as one provision of a ballot measure to adopt a state constitution. You can click on a state to learn more about the number of women's suffrage ballot measures that were voted on and in what years in that state.
Path to the ballot
In Arizona, the number of signatures required for an initiated constitutional amendment is equal to 15 percent of the votes cast at the preceding gubernatorial election.
See also
External links
Footnotes
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