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New York Amendment 1, Women's Suffrage Measure (1917)

From Ballotpedia
New York Amendment 1

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Election date

November 6, 1917

Topic
Sex and gender issues andWomen's suffrage
Status

ApprovedApproved

Type
Legislatively referred constitutional amendment
Origin

State legislature



New York Amendment 1 was on theballot as alegislatively referred constitutional amendment inNew York onNovember 6, 1917. It wasapproved.

A"yes" votesupported providing women with the right to vote.

A"no" voteopposed providing women with the right to vote.


Election results

New York Amendment 1

ResultVotesPercentage

ApprovedYes

703,12953.92%
No600,77646.08%
Results are officially certified.
Source


Text of measure

Ballot title

The ballot title for Amendment 1 was as follows:

"Shall the proposed amendment to section one of article two of the Constitution, conferring equal suffrage upon women," be approved?


Background

State women's suffrage ballot measures

See also:State women's suffrage ballot measures

The19th Amendment of theU.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 bookWoman 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, PresidentTheodore Roosevelt advised the suffrage movement to "Go, get another State."[1]

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 canclick 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

See also:Amending the New York Constitution

A simple majority vote is required during two successive legislative sessions for theNew York State Legislature to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. That amounts to a minimum of 126 votes in theNew York State Assembly and 32 votes in theNew York State Senate, assuming no vacancies. Amendments do not require the governor's signature to be referred to the ballot.

See also


Footnotes

  1. 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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