Vote…Vote…Vote!

We are four days away from the most consequential election in my lifetime. What’s at stake? Our fundamental rights. Think that’s hyperbole? Consider several far-right politicians not even trying to hide from their dangerous rhetoric. Mark Robinson, the North Carolina GOP candidate for Senator, said, and I quote, “I absolutely do want to go back to the America where women couldn’t vote.” Very recently, John McEntee, a political adviser who served in the Trump administration, posted a video on X, “So I guess they misunderstood. When we said we wanted mail-only voting, we meant male—’M-A-L-E.'” He added in the caption, “Sorry we want MALE only voting. The 19th might have to go.” Christian pastor Dale Partridge argued in a series of tweets that “in a Christian marriage, a wife should vote according to her husband’s direction.” Jesse Walters, Fox News sycophant, argued that if he found out his wife “was going into the voting booth and pulling the lever for Harris, that’s the same thing as having an affair.” And finally, rightwing agitator Charlie Kirk was upset by the idea women might vote according to their agenda and not their husband’s. Nobody thought Roe versus Wade would be overturned since it would take us back in time fifty years. And we were wrong. What makes us so arrogant to believe we won’t let them take us back one hundred years to when women could not vote? Consider what’s happened in Afghanistan. Afghan women earned the right to vote before us. Yup, they won the right to vote in 1919. So, I wanted to remind everyone how hard women fought for our right to vote. Don’t waste your vote. Get out there and make your voice heard. Here’s the timeline for women’s voting rights in the US:

In 1948, the inaugural women’s rights convention at Seneca Falls, led by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton adopted the Declaration of Sentiments, calling for equality for women, including a resolution that women should seek the right to vote.
In 1869, Wyoming, of all places, passed the Women’s Suffrage Law. Then, in 1890, when Wyoming was admitted to the Union, it became the first state to grant women the right to vote.
In 1872, Susan B Anthony and a dozen other suffragists were arrested for voting in New York.
In 1878, the California Senate drafted the amendment that allowed women to vote, which was adopted 41 years later.
In 1890, the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) is formed.
In 1896, Harriet Tubman, Frances E.W. Harper, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell formed the National Association of Colored Women Clubs (NACWC).
In 1901 and 1903, the NAWSA conventions in Atlanta and New Orleans bar Black suffragists from attending. Despite the need to honor the women suffragists for their efforts to help women gain the right to vote, shame on them!
In 1913, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns broke from NAWSA and founded the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (later the National Woman’s Party) to press for federal action versus the previous state-by-state approach. Paul leads a protest march of some 5,000 to 10,000 women in Washington, D.C., on the day of Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration.
In 1916-17, Jeanette Rankin of Montana, a former NAWSA lobbyist, became the first woman elected to Congress. NAWSA president Carrie Chapman Catt commits the organization to working toward the war effort. Paul and others take a different approach, holding peaceful protests outside the White House, calling for Wilson to support women’s suffrage. Many protesters are arrested and jailed for obstructing sidewalk traffic; Paul and others undertake hunger strikes to bring attention to their cause. On November 14, 1917, the infamous “Night of Terror” happened, where the guards at Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia beat and terrorized 33 women who were arrested for picketing.
In January 1919, President Woodrow Wilson changed his position after the House voted in favor of women’s suffrage, but the Senate failed in the Senate, which required a 2/3rds majority.
In June 1919, the amendment finally passed the House and Senate, and the ratification process started. Since ratification required 36 states…it took a while. Georgia was the first state to vote against ratification and didn’t ratify until 1970. Alabama was the second state to vote against ratification. By June of 1920, they only needed one more state for ratification, but they didn’t get it, because Delaware shocked everyone by voting against the amendment.
In August 1920, Tennessee provided the final state needed for ratification, and women finally won the right to vote.

I hope you all join me in saying loudly, “We won’t go back!” I try not to write too many political blogs, but I felt it was important to make an exception as we are on the cusp of another historical moment. One that will define us as a nation. Will we follow in the footsteps of Afghanistan or reverse our path and win back the rights we’ve recently lost? For those who have read my books, you know I don’t hold back on my political views. Many of my books reveal where I stand. Feel free to check them out. You know the drill, click the links below. Of course, I also write fluffy little romances, and my collaboration with my good pal Ali Spooner offers a fun little Christmas Novella that is now on preorder.