Her Hat Was in the Ring!


U.S.Women Who Ran for Political Office Before 1920

 
Marietta Stowe
California
Permeal French
Idaho

Cynthia Leonard
New York

Women and the Races for Elective Office

State Campaigns

UTAH

Women first gained full suffrage rights in the territory of Utah in 1870. They voted in the elections of August of that year. An Act of Congress removed women's suffrage in 1887 when Utah applied for statehood. The Utah legislature added the right of suffrage for women when they created the state constitution in 1895. The following year Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon was the first woman to be elected to a state senate. Lucy A. Clark also ran for the state senate that year, but was defeated. Several women were elected to the lower house in the Utah state legislature in 1896, including Sarah E. N. Anderson, and Eurithe K. LaBarthe. On the local level women, such as Mrs. M.J. Atwood and Mary Woolley Chamberlain, ran for school superintendent, county clerk, mayor, and town council positions. Dozens of women across Utah ran for and served, in elected positions from the 1896 onwards.

   


Official ballot for the Lincoln Voting District, No. 5, 1904 general election in Tooele County, Utah. One woman ran for office that year as part of the Socialist Party ticket.

Click here to see a more detailed view of the front and back of the ballot






Detail of the Lincoln Voting District, No. 5, 1904 ballot
Frances Mills ran for County Clerk of Tooele Utah on the Socialist ticket
Amongst other duties the County Clerk was in charge of creating the election ballots for Tooele County
From the private collection of Jill Norgren and Wendy Chmielewski





































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