IT WAS A LONG ROW TO HOE
New Jersey’s Roller Coaster ride …with women’s right to vote. You probably knew this, but I didn’t…Two days before the Declaration of Independence…
July 2, 1776 — The New Jersey State Constitution is adopted. It uses the gender-neutral pronoun “they” and does not include racial categories in its election law.
November 18, 1790 — The New Jersey State Legislature passes an Act revising the regulations of the election law to include “he or she” in 7 of 13 counties in New Jersey (Bergen, Burlington, Gloucester, Hunterdon, Monmouth, Salem, and Sussex). This law also institutes township voting in these counties.
February 22, 1797 — The New Jersey Legislature passes a statewide Act revising the regulations of the election law to include “he or she,” lower the property requirement for voters from “fifty pounds proclamation money clear estate in the same” to “fifty pounds proclamation money,” and institutes township voting across the state.
October 1800 — In Bedminster Township, Somerset County, New Jersey, a state election takes place. Three women vote in that election, and 2 vote against reconvening the state constitutional convention.
December 1800 — Twenty-nine women (of 217 voters) vote in a congressional election in Upper Penns Neck Township, Salem County, New Jersey. A total of at least 75 women vote in state or congressional elections in Upper Penns Neck from 1800 – 1806, some voting year after year.
October 13, 1801 — A state election takes place in Montgomery Township, Somerset County, New Jersey. Of 343 total voters, at least 46 are women and at least four are free Black male voters. October 1802 — New Jersey residents began submitting petitions to the state legislature citing voter fraud and suppression as early as 1783. From 1783 to 1807, 73 petitions were submitted to the state (37 for voter suppression, 36 voter fraud)….October 1802 — Petitions taken in Maidenhead Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, urge the state legislature to overturn an 1802 election. Petitioners allege that married women, enslaved people, “aliens” and non-residents had voted illegally….
1805 — Martin v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts sets a legal precedent that married women did not have separate political identities or citizenship from their husbands under “coverture.”
October 1807 — A state election takes place in Chester Township, Burlington County, New Jersey. Of 260 voters, 38 are women. The election marks one of the last elections in the state that women and free people of color are legally able to participate in. https://tag.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/suffrage-by-state.pdf
(In other words, women had the right to vote in New Jersey for more than thirty years and then it was taken away from them [us]!)
Post Script:
Compiled by the Center for American Women and Politics – August 2014
The following territories provided full voting rights to women before statehood:
1869 Territory of Wyoming
1870 Territory of Utah
1883 Territory of Washington
1887 Territory of Montana
1913 Territory of Alaska
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I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the women’s vote and about one woman who was quoted as saying she wasn’t interested in what he said, but the sight of the former president “made her all warm inside.”
By November 2024 I hope we have found more cerebral reasons for whichever way we choose to vote.
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Who’s going to get thrown under the bus next? [I hate that image, but it is so descriptive in a metaphorical way]. I heard a rumor that the conservatives are readying a new candidate for the November fray if/when Mr. Trump tires or retires…. and will enter that person to run as a conservative INDEPENDENT.
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“God Bless the USA Bible” is a period piece for sixty dollars, and the proceeds go to its generator.
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Hope this isn’t a repeat:
It’s her fault, not mine I’m told.
My Muse is ill and gotten old.
Silver threads among the brown
on her way to leaving town,
taking with her my renown.
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