Take a Ride on the Chester to Celebrate 100 Years of Women's Suffrage!
Dear Members and Friends of the League of Women Voters of Kent County,
Our League has planned an event to celebrate the 100th birthday of U.S. Women’s Suffrage: We have rented the Chester River Packet for August 26, Women’s Equality Day, to mark the day in 1920 that the 19th Amendment was certified as part of the U.S. Constitution.
Our plan is to attach two very large banners to the sides of the packet, touting women’s right to vote in this country as we cruise down the Chester, wearing white and waving to onlookers. Though the trip was conceived of mainly as a publicity opportunity, we have spaces for a few more people; the cost will be $40 per person, including a fried chicken dinner (cash bar). If you would like to join us, wear white and a mask – we will be social distancing during our journey, and we will have the packet all to ourselves. Boarding will be at 5:45; the trip should take two hours. To reserve a space, contact Jane Hardy, janewhardy@gmail.com, or Linda Applegate, lindyapp@yahoo.com. Please do this before Wednesday, August 19.
Because of the pandemic many of our plans to celebrate the 100 years have been stymied, but this milestone – and that actually little time has passed since women were legally designated as being full partners in our democracy -- should not go unrecognized. The boat trip is also another way in which we can encourage everyone who can to vote. Please consider joining us for this event.
Nancy Smith, Voter Service Chair
League of Women Voters of Kent County
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Maryland Board of Elections Approves
Voting-Center Model for November
by George Shivers
According to an article by Rick Massimo published online by WTOP News, on August 7, the State Board of Election voted unanimously to recommend holding all in-person voting at voting centers, which would allow voters to use any center in their county. They also voted to add all Maryland’s 282 high schools to the state’s eighty existing early voting centers. Governor Hogan, however, would have to grant the board the power to make the move. The board plans to run early voting from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, starting Oct. 26 through Election Day on Nov. 3, nine in-person voting days in total. (In recent years early voting has been conducted in Maryland from the Thursday thirteen days before Election Day through the Thursday six days before Election Day. Our early voting site in Kent County has been the KC Public Library in Chestertown.)
An article in the Baltimore Sun published on Aug. 10 indicates that the Governor has approved a plan for 360 voting centers in the State, although he noted what he said were “serious concerns” with the proposal. These concerns include the system’s potential to result in long lines and unsafe conditions. The voting center plan is an alternative to opening about 1,600 polling places around the state. It is in part a response to the shortage of election judges. An article in the Washington Post reported that four out of ten election judge jobs in Maryland are vacant. Additionally, Hogan called for absentee ballot applications to be mailed to all voters, not the ballots themselves, and has reprimanded the board for not immediately complying with his order to mail the ballot applications. Election officials say that the applications are expected to be mailed by August 28. Residents may request a mail-in ballot online at elections.maryland.gov. The deadline to request a mail-in ballot is Oct. 20.
Kate Amara, of WBAL, reports that the board confirmed there will be 127 ballot drop-off boxes in the state for the presidential election. The board also indicated it expects the ballot drop-off containers to be used in future elections.
According to the Sun article, by Emily Opilo and Pamela Wood, the voting center plan was a compromise between the position of election rights advocates, who want the state to mail all voters a ballot to discourage voting in person, and the Governor’s position, which calls for traditional, in-person voting in local precincts, but with mailed-in absentee ballots as an alternative to in-person voting. Amy Cruice, the election protection director of the ACLU of Maryland, noted that when ballots were mailed to voters for the primary, 97% of the votes were mail-in. She believes that if this process were repeated in the fall, the result would perhaps be 90% mail-in and 10% in-person voters. In that case the 360 voting centers could handle the number of in-person voters.
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Telling Our Story:
Important Dates to Remember
On August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment, thereby making it the “law of the land” eight days later. The struggle for ratification was hard-fought, and the League of Women Voters was on the front line. If you ever visit Nashville, stop by that city’s Centennial Park to see a statue commemorating the battle for suffrage that took place that summer in Nashville. Carrie Chapman Catt, a “general” in the battle and the founder of the League of Women Voters, is depicted by the figure on the left in front.
Forward Into the Light: On August 26, “Women’s Equality Day,” celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the formal certification of the 19th Amendment to our Constitution, buildings and landmarks across the country, including the Library of Congress and National Archives, will light up in purple and gold in honor of the suffrage movement. The motto “Forward Into the Light” was stitched upon the banner often carried in parades by suffragist Inez Milholland.
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