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South Dakota Women's Suffrage Amendment (1914)
| South Dakota Women's Suffrage Amendment | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 3, 1914 | |
| Topic Suffrage | |
Status Defeated | |
| Type Constitutional amendment | Origin State legislature |
South Dakota Women's Suffrage Amendment was on the ballot as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment in South Dakota on November 3, 1914. It was defeated.
A "yes" vote supported this state constitutional amendment to provide women with the right to vote. |
A "no" vote opposed this state constitutional amendment to provide women with the right to vote. |
The measure would have granted suffrage to women by removing the word male from Section 1 of Article VII of the South Dakota Constitution. It was known as Senate Joint Resolution 3 in the South Dakota Legislature.[1][2]
Election results
|
South Dakota Women's Suffrage Amendment |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Result | Votes | Percentage | ||
| Yes | 39,605 | 43.46% | ||
|
|
51,519 | 56.54% | ||
Constitutional changes
If it had been approved, the measure would have amended Section 1 of Article VII of the South Dakota Constitution to read as follows:[2]
- First. Citizens of the United States.
- Second. Person of foreign birth who shall have declared their intention to become citizens conformably to the laws of the United States upon the subject of naturalization.[3]
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."[4]
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.
See also
External links
- South Dakota Political Almanac, Table 7. Results of Elections Concerning State Constitutional Amendments and Initiated and Referred Laws, 1889-1968
- South Dakota Legislature, "Enabling Act and Constitution and the Laws Passed by the Thirteenth Session of the Legislature of the State of South Dakota," 1913
Footnotes
- ↑ South Dakota Political Almanac, "Table 7. Results of Elections Concerning State Constitutional Amendments and Initiated and Referred Laws, 1889-1968," accessed May 22, 2014
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 South Dakota Legislature, "Enabling Act and Constitution and the Laws Passed by the Thirteenth Session of the Legislature of the State of South Dakota," 1913
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source.
- ↑ Catt, Carrie Chapman and Nettie Rogers Shuler. (1923). Woman Suffrage and Politics: The Inner Story of the Suffrage Movement. New York, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. (pages 149-150)
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