OBJECTIONS TO THE FEDERAL AMENDMENT
I. STATES RIGHTS. THIS OBJECTION IS URGED BY ALL OPPONENTS OF WOMAN
SUFFRAGE, BUT IS EITHER A BARRICADE TO DEFEND THEMSELVES FROM THE
NECESSITY OF EXPOSING THE FACT THAT THEY HAVE NO REASONS, OR IS A PLAY
TO POSTPONE WOMAN SUFFRAGE AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. BY A FEW IT IS URGED
CONSCIENTIOUSLY AND WITH CONVICTION.
That there are many problems whose treatment belongs so appropriately
to state governments that any infringement of that right by the
Federal Government would be an act of tyranny, no American will
question. But assuredly woman suffrage is not one of these. One by
one classes of men have been granted the vote until women are the only
remaining unenfranchised class. States have set up various restrictive
qualifications so that criminality, idiocy, insanity, pauperism,
drunkenness, foreign birth are accepted as ordinary causes of
disfranchisement. Yet not one of these conditions is common to all the
states. The foreigner votes on his first papers in eight states and
a five years' residence will usually secure his naturalization and a
consequent vote in any state. The criminal, idiot and insane are not
denied a vote in several states, and in most a large class of ignorant
un-American men with no comprehension of our problems, our history, or
ideals, are conspicuous voters on election day. Millions of new voters
have entered our country and without the expenditure of time, money or
service have received the vote since the pending Federal Amendment was
first introduced.
For two generations groups of women have given their lives and their
fortunes to secure the vote for their sex and hundreds of thousands of
other women are now giving all the time at their command. No class of
men in our own or any other country has made one-tenth the effort nor
sacrificed one-tenth as much for the vote. The long delay, the
double dealing, the broken faith of political parties, the insult of
disfranchisement of the qualified in a land which freely gives the
vote to the unqualified, combines to produce as insufferable a tyranny
as any modern nation has perpetuated upon a class of its citizens.
The souls of women which should be warm with patriotic love of their
country are growing bitter over the inexplicable wrong their country
is doing them. Hands and heads that should be busy with other problems
of our nation are withheld that they may get the tools with which
to work. Purses that should be open to many causes are emptied into
suffrage coffers until this monumental injustice shall be wiped away.
Woman suffrage is a question of righting a nation-wide injustice, of
establishing a phase of unquestioned human liberty and of carrying out
a proposition to which our nation is pledged; it therefore transcends
all considerations of states rights. This objection comes chiefly
from Southern Democrats, who claim that it is a form of oppression for
three-fourths of the states to foist upon one-fourth measures of
which the minority of states do not approve. Yet the provision for
so amending the Constitution was adopted by the states and has stood
unchallenged in the Constitution for more than a century. If it be
unfair, undemocratic or even unsatisfactory, it is curious that no
movement to change the provision has ever developed. The Constitution
has been twice amended recently and it is interesting to note that it
happened under a Democratic Administration. More, the child labor and
eight-hour bills, while not constitutional amendments, are subject to
the same plea that no state shall have laws imposed upon it without
its consent. Both measures were introduced by Southern Democrats.
The pending Federal Prohibition Amendment was also introduced by a
Southern Democrat and is supported by many others. Upon consideration
of these facts, it would seem that "states rights" is either a theory
to be invoked whenever necessary to conceal an unreasoning hostility
to a measure or that those who advance it are guilty of extremely
muddy thinking.
The Constitution of the United States as now amended provides that no
male citizen subject to state qualifications shall be denied the
vote by any state. Were all the state constitutions amended so as to
enfranchise women, the word male would still stand in the National
Constitution. Men and women would still be unequal, since the National
Constitution can impose a penalty upon a state which denies the vote
to men, but none upon the state which discriminates against women.
A woman comes from Montana to represent that state in Congress.
The State of Montana has done its utmost to remove her political
disabilities, yet should she cross the border of her state and live
in North Dakota, she loses all that Montana gave her. Not so the male
voter. Enfranchised in one state, he is enfranchised in all (subject
to difference of qualification only). The women of this nation will
never be content with less protection in their right to vote than
is given to men and there is no other possible way to secure that
protection except through amendment to the National Constitution.
No single state, nor the forty-eight collectively, can grant that
protection except through the Federal Constitution.
As granting to half the population of our country the right of
consent to their own government, whose expenses they help to pay, is
a question of fundamental human liberty, Congress and the legislatures
should be proud to act and to add one more immortal chapter to
America's history of freedom.
II. SOUTHERN MEMBERS OF CONGRESS VERY GENERALLY URGE THAT THEY OPPOSE
THE FEDERAL AMENDMENT BECAUSE IT WILL CONFER THE VOTE UPON THE NEGRO
WOMEN OF THEIR RESPECTIVE STATES; AND THAT THAT WILL INTERFERE WITH
WHITE SUPREMACY IN THE SOUTH.
It is difficult to believe this objection to be sincere, since facts
do not support the contention. The facts are that woman suffrage
secured by Federal Amendment will be subject to whatever restrictions
may be imposed by state constitutions (provided those restrictions are
in accord with the National Constitution) in precisely the same way
as woman suffrage secured by state constitutional amendment. No larger
number of negro women can be enfranchised by Federal Amendment than
will be enfranchised by State Amendment. If the women of the South
are ever to be enfranchised, it must be by (1) Federal Constitutional
Amendment, or (2) State Constitutional Amendment. If their franchise
is obtained by the former method, it will come by the votes of white
men in Congress and legislatures; if by the second, they will be
forced to appeal to voting Negroes to elevate them to their own
political status. One would suppose the first would be the preferable
method from the Southern viewpoint. It is possible that behind this
commonly spoken objection, lies a hope and belief that Southern women
will remain disfranchised forevermore. A man unfamiliar with political
history, psychology, and the science of evolution might cherish such
a belief in fancied security, but ideas cannot be shut outside the
borders of a state. There is no Southern state in which women of the
highest families are not giving their all in order to propagate this
cause, and they are doing it with so noble a spirit and so eloquent
an appeal that final surrender of the citadel of prejudice is only a
question of time. No one has ever questioned the "fighting ability" of
the South. That ability is not confined to men. Courage, intelligence,
conviction and willingness to sacrifice characterize the suffrage
movement in every state, and the South is no exception. The women of
that section will vote; the question is how long must they work, how
much must they sacrifice to win that which has so freely been granted
to men of all classes?
White supremacy will be strengthened, not weakened, by woman suffrage.
In the fifteen states south of the Mason and Dixon line are:
8,788,901 white women,
4,316,565 negro women, or
4,472,336 more white than negro women.
The total negro population is 8,294,274, and white women outnumber
both negro males and females by nearly half a million. In two states
only, South Carolina and Mississippi, are there more negro than white
women, and in these states there are more negro men than white men. In
South Carolina, voters must read, own and pay taxes on $300 worth of
property. In Mississippi, voters must read the Constitution. The
other four states of the "black belt"--Georgia, Florida, Alabama and
Louisiana--impose an educational test. Women voters would be compelled
to submit to the same qualifications. In the other nine states white
women exceed the total negro population. Woman suffrage in the South
would so vastly increase the white vote that it would guarantee white
supremacy if it otherwise stood in danger of overthrow. If a sly dread
of female supremacy is troubling the doubter he may find comfort in
the rather astonishing fact that white males over 21 are considerably
in excess of white females over 21 in all except Maryland and North
Carolina; negro females over 21 exceed negro males in Alabama,
Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, but
the restrictions in these states of property ownership represented
by tax receipts, education and various other tests, would fall more
heavily upon women than men, and thus admit fewer women than men to
the vote. If the South really wants White Supremacy, it will urge
the enfranchisement of women. The following table offers insuperable
proof:
====================================================================
| |Per Cent. of| WHITE | NEGROES
| | Negroes in | 21 Years and Over | 21 Years and Over
| STATES | Population | |
| | All Ages | Male | Female | Male | Female
+---------------+------------+---------+---------+---------+--------
|Delaware ......| 15.4 | 52,804 | 50,160 | 9,050 | 8,281
|Maryland ......| 17.9 | 303,561 | 309,897 | 63,963 | 63,899
|Dist. Columbia.| 28.5 | 75,765 | 81,622 | 27,621 | 34,449
|Virginia ......| 32.6 | 363,659 | 353,516 | 159,593 | 164,844
|North Carolina.| 31.6 | 357,611 | 358,583 | 146,752 | 159,236
|South Carolina | 55.2 | 165,769 | 162,623 | 169,155 | 181,264
|Georgia .......| 45.1 | 353,569 | 343,187 | 266,814 | 269,937
|Florida .......| 41.0 | 124,311 | 105,662 | 89,659 | 72,998
|Kentucky ......| 11.4 | 527,661 | 506,299 | 75,694 | 73,413
|Tennessee .....| 21.7 | 433,431 | 419,646 | 119,142 | 122,707
|Alabama .......| 42.5 | 298,943 | 284,116 | 213,923 | 217,676
|Mississippi ...| 56.2 | 192,741 | 180,787 | 233,701 | 231,901
|Arkansas ......| 28.1 | 284,301 | 248,964 | 111,365 | 102,917
|Louisiana .....| 43.1 | 240,001 | 222,473 | 174,211 | 172,711
|Texas .........| 17.7 | 835,962 | 722,063 | 166,393 | 161,959
|Missouri ......| 4.8 | 919,480 | 874,997 | 52,921 | 48,057
|Oklahoma ......| 8.3 | 393,377 | 311,266 | 36,841 | 30,208
|West Virginia .| 5.3 | 315,498 | 270,298 | 22,757 | 14,667
====================================================================
Speaking of the probable enforcement of the National Constitution
against the "Grandfather clause" in Southern constitutions, Walter E.
Clark, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, said:
"In North Carolina such a decision would readmit to the polls 125,000
negro votes. What preparation have we made to meet such a possible
result? I know of but one remedy. The census shows that the white
population of North Carolina is seventy per cent. and the colored
population thirty per cent. It follows that the white adult women of
North Carolina are more in numbers than the negro men and negro women
combined. _The votes of 260,000 white women can be relied on to
stand solid against any measure or any man who proposes to question
Anglo-Saxon supremacy._
"I am not intimating that the admission of the white women to the
polls will secure democratic supremacy (they will not impair it),
nor that it will prejudice the republican element. The equal suffrage
movement has never proceeded on party lines and the women would scorn
to be admitted unless they were as free in their choice of party
measures and candidates as the men. But what I am saying is that
if the negroes are readmitted by a decision of the Federal Court to
suffrage, the 260,000 votes of the white women of the State will be
one solid obstacle to any measure that would impair either for them or
their children the continuance of white supremacy."
III. WOMEN DO NOT WANT TO VOTE AND HENCE IT IS UNFAIR TO THRUST THE
VOTE UPON THEM BY FEDERAL AMENDMENT.
We have two classes of voters in the United States, young men who
automatically become voters at twenty-one, and naturalized citizens.
No one among them has ever been asked whether he wishes the vote. It
was "thrust upon them" all as a privilege which each would use or not
as he desired. To extend the suffrage to those who do not desire it is
no hardship, since only those who wish the privilege will use it. On
the other hand, it becomes an intolerable oppression to deny it to
those who want it. The vote is permissive, not obligatory. It imposes
no definite responsibility; it extends a liberty. That there are women
who do not want the vote is true, but the well-known large number of
qualified men who do not use the vote, indicates that the desire to
have someone else assume the responsibility of public service is not
confined to women. It is an easy excuse to say "wait until all the
women want it," but it is a poor rule which doesn't work both ways.
Had it been necessary for members of Congress to wait until all men
wanted the vote before they had one for themselves, we should be
living in an unconstitutional monarchy. More, had it been necessary
for women to wait until all women approved of college or even public
school education for girls, property rights, the right of free speech,
or any one of the many liberties now enjoyed by women, but formerly
denied them, the iniquities of the old common law would still measure
the privileges of women, and high schools and colleges would still
close their doors to women.
A certain way to test whether any class of people want the vote is to
note the numbers of those who use it when granted.
As men and women voters do not use separate boxes and as initials
are often employed by both sexes in registration, election officials
invariably reply to queries as to the number of women actually voting
in their respective states, that positive figures are not obtainable.
Yet the testimony, while lacking definite statement, is overwhelming
that women in all lands vote in about the same proportion as men.
Women in Illinois, not being possessed of complete suffrage rights,
have voted in separate boxes, and figures are therefore obtainable.
The report from the City of Chicago for 1916 as submitted by the Chief
Clerk of the Board of Election Commissioners is as follows:
REGISTRATION
Men Women Total
504,674 303,801 808,475
VOTES CAST NOV 7
Men Women Total
487,210--96.5% 289,444--95.2% 776,654--96%
VOTES CAST--DEMOCRATIC
Men Women Total
217,328 133,847 351,175
VOTES CAST--REPUBLICAN
Men Women Total
235,328 141,533 377,201
PROGRESSIVE AND SOCIALIST
48,278
Although New York City is nearly two and a half times as large as
Chicago, the registration of the latter exceeded that of New York by
69,307.
The following is quoted from an official statement issued by the
California Civic League on what the women of California have done with
the vote:
"There has been some attempt on the part of those opposed
to women voting to make it appear that in San Francisco
particularly, women were slow to register and loth to vote.
The fact is always suppressed that there are never less
than 132 men to every 100 women in the city and that women
therefore should properly be only forty-three per cent. of the
total number of voting adults. At the last mayoralty election
the women unquestionably re-elected the incumbent as against
Eugene Schmitz of graft-prosecution fame, who tried to 'come
back.' In this election women constituted thirty-seven per
cent. of the total registered vote and the women of the best
residence districts voted in the proportion of forty-two
to forty-four per cent. of the total vote cast in those
precincts; while in the downtown, tenderloin and dance-hall
districts women constituted only twenty-seven per cent. of
the registration and negligible portion of the vote. These
proportions have been substantially maintained in minor
elections since, and were slightly increased in the National
election of November, 1916, when they comprised thirty-nine
per cent. of the registration and voted within two per cent.
as heavily as men."
From no state comes the report that women have not used their vote.
The evidence that they do use it has been so largely distributed
through the press, that more definite proof seems unnecessary, even
were it possible to secure it. The following bits of testimony taken
from press reports are of interest:
In WYOMING, out of 45,000 registered voters, 20,000 are reported
as women. But Wyoming has 219 men to every 100 women of voting age.
Therefore to compare favorably with Wyoming's 20,000 women voters
there should the 53,800 men.
* * * * *
In MONTANA, one-third of a registration of 255,000 is made up of
women. Montana has 189.6 men to every 100 women. As there were only
81,741 women of voting age in Montana in 1910, the present number,
85,000, must mean that nearly every woman in the state voted in 1916.
* * * * *
About 40% of UTAH'S 130,000 registration is made up of women. Utah has
6 men of voting age to every 5 women, 20% more men than women.
* * * * *
In IDAHO, out of a registration of 95,000, there are 40,000 women.
Idaho has more than half as many again men as women. Therefore to
have a fifty-fifty representation at the polls, Idaho should have
registered 60,000 men instead of 55,000 to match its 40,000 women.
IV. CONSTITUENCY HAS INSTRUCTED AGAINST SUFFRAGE.
This objection is urged by members in whose states there have been
referenda on the subject in recent years with adverse results. Members
of Congress are apportioned among the several states according to
population and are constitutionally obligated to represent women as
well as men. As the electors of no constituency have voted solidly
against woman suffrage, such objectors are accepting instructions
from less than half their adult constituents and often from less than
one-fourth. Women have had no opportunity to speak for themselves. As
a matter of very suggestive fact, thirty-five members of Congress,
who upon interview have expressed opposition to the Federal Amendment,
were elected by minorities. Some of these represent states which
have had a referendum on woman suffrage and were elected by a smaller
number of total votes than their respective districts gave the
suffrage amendment. These are such curious facts, that it is difficult
to believe in the sincerity of the objection. That men and elements
which have contributed money and work to secure the election of a
member of Congress instruct him how to vote is more believable. For
the sake of the common welfare of the American people, it is well,
that the number of such members is probably few.
V. POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY. The South professes to fear the increased
Negro vote; the North, the increased Foreign vote; the rich, the
increased labor vote; the conservative, the increased illiterate
vote. The Republicans since the recent presidential election fear
the increased Democratic vote; the Democrats fear the woman voters'
support was only temporary. The "wet" fears the increased dry vote;
the "dry" the increased controlled wet vote. Certain very numerous
elements fear the increased Catholic vote and still others the
increased Jewish vote. The Orthodox Protestant and Catholic fear
the increased free-thinking vote and the free-thinkers are decidedly
afraid of the increased church vote. Labor fears the increased
influence of the capitalistic class, and capitalists, especially of
the manufacturing group, are extremely disturbed at the prospect of
votes being extended to their women employees. Certain groups fear the
increased Socialist vote and certain Socialists fear the "lady vote."
Party men fear women voters will have no party consciousness and prove
so independent as to disintegrate the party. Radical or progressive
elements fear that women will be "stand-pat" partisans. Ballot
reformers fear the increased corrupt vote and corruptionists fear
the increased reform vote. Militarists are much alarmed lest women
increase the peace vote and, despite the fact that the press of the
country has poured forth increasing evidence that the women of every
belligerent country have borne their full share of the war burden
with such unexpected skill and ability that the authorities have been
lavish in acknowledgment, seem certain that women of the United
States will prove the exception to the world's rule and show the white
feather if war threatens.
Ridiculous as this list of objections may appear, each is supported
earnestly by a considerable group, and collectively they furnish the
basis of opposition to woman suffrage in and out of Congress.
The answer to one is the answer to all.
Government by "the people" is expedient or it is not. If it is
expedient, then obviously _all_ the people must be included. If it
is not expedient, the simplest logic leads to the conclusion that the
classes to be deprived of the franchise should be determined by their
qualities of unfitness for the vote. If education, intelligence,
grasp of public questions, patriotism, willingness and ability to give
public service, respect of law, are selected as fair qualifications
for those to be entrusted with the vote and the opposite as the
qualities of those to be denied the vote, it follows that men and
women will be included in the classes adjudged fit to vote, and also
in those adjudged unfit to vote. Meanwhile the system which admits the
unworthy to the vote provided they are men, and shuts out the
worthy provided they are women, is so unjust and illogical that its
perpetuation is a sad reflection upon American thinking.
The clear thinker will arrive at the conclusion that women must be
included in the electorate if our country wishes to be consistent with
the principles it boasts as fundamental. The shortest method to secure
this enfranchisement is the quickest method to extricate our country
from the absurdity of its present position.
VI. THE LOW STANDARDS OF CITIZENSHIP which lead to controlled votes,
bribery and various forms of corruptions, will be accentuated by
woman suffrage with the doubling of every dangerous element, hence
any effort to postpone its coming is justifiable. Woman suffrage will
increase the proportion of _intelligent voters_. According to the
Commissioners of Education there are now one-third more girls in the
high schools of the country than boys. In 1914, the latest figures,
64,491 boys were graduated from the high schools of the United States
and 96,115 girls. In the normal schools the educational report for
1915 states that 80 per cent. of the pupils were girls. The Census of
1910 reports a larger number of illiterate men than illiterate women.
Woman suffrage would increase the _moral_ vote. Only one out of every
twenty criminals are women. Women constitute a minority of drunkards
and petty misdemeanants, and in all the factors that tend to handicap
the progress of society women form a minority; whereas in churches,
schools and all organizations working for the uplift of humanity,
women are a majority. In all American states and countries that
have adopted equal suffrage the vote of the disreputable woman is
practically negligible, the slum wards of cities invariably having the
lightest woman vote and the respectable residence wards the heaviest.
Woman suffrage would increase the number of _native born voters_ as
for every 100 foreign white women immigrants coming to this country
there are 129 men, while among Asiatic immigrants the men outnumber
the women two to one, according to the Census of 1910.
Woman suffrage would help to _correct election procedure_. In all
states where women vote, the polling booths have been moved into
homes, church parlors, school houses or other similar respectable
places. Women serve as election officials and the subduing influence
of woman's presence elsewhere has had its effect upon the elections.
Women greatly increase the number of competent persons who can be
drawn upon as election officials. No class of persons in the nation
is so well trained as school teachers for this work. The presence of
women as voters and officials would in itself eliminate certain
types of irregularity and go a long way toward establishing a higher
standard of election procedure. Woman suffrage cannot possibly make
political conditions worse, since all the elements which combine to
produce those conditions are less conspicuous among women than men. On
the other hand the introduction of a new class possessing a very
large number of persons who would unwillingly tolerate some of the
conditions now prevailing offers evidence that a powerful influence
for better things would come with the woman's vote.
VII. PROHIBITION HAS OUTSTRIPPED SUFFRAGE, THEREFORE SUFFRAGE
SENTIMENT IS LESS STRONG.
It should be remembered that prohibition may be obtained by statutory
enactment, a privilege denied woman suffrage; that it has been largely
established by local option, another privilege denied woman suffrage.
These facts account for the larger success as indicated by relative
territory covered by prohibition and woman suffrage.
APPENDIX A
The Following Statement Shows the Extent of Suffrage Enjoyed by Women
in Other Lands:
THE AUSTRALIAN PROVINCES granted municipal suffrage to women as
follows: New South Wales, 1867; Victoria, 1869; West Australia, 1871;
South Australia, 1880; Tasmania, 1884; Queensland, 1886. They granted
full suffrage to women as follows: South Australia, 1897; West
Australia, 1899; New South Wales, 1902; Tasmania, 1903; Queensland,
1905; Victoria, 1908.
* * * * *
Full suffrage was granted to the women of The Isle of Man, 1892; New
Zealand, 1893; Finland, 1906; Norway, 1907; Denmark, 1915; Iceland,
1916.
* * * * *
CANADIAN PROVINCES extended municipal suffrage to women as follows:
Ontario, 1884, to widows and spinsters assessed for not less than
$400, married women entitled to vote on some propositions; New
Brunswick, 1886, to women and spinsters rate payers; Nova Scotia,
1887, to all women rate payers; Manitoba, 1888, to all woman rate
payers; British Columbia, 1888, widows and spinsters rate payers;
Alberta, 1888, widows and spinsters rate payers; Saskatchewan, 1888,
widows and spinsters rate payers; Prince Edward Island, 1888, widows
and spinsters property holders; Quebec, 1892, widows and spinsters
property holders. The full suffrage was granted to all women in the
Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia in
1916.
* * * * *
SOUTH AFRICA--Municipal suffrage was extended to women as follows: In
The Transvaal, in 1854, to burghers' wives; in 1903 to white women
on a property qualification; in Cape Colony, 1882, to all women on
a property qualification; in Orange River Colony, 1904, to all women
resident householders.
* * * * *
SWEDEN--Municipal suffrage for unmarried women, School Board and
Ecclesiastical Franchise (without eligibility to office), 1862; School
Board and Poor Law (with eligibility), 1889; eligibility to municipal
and church councils, and extension of suffrage rights to married
women, 1909.
* * * * *
In ENGLAND and WALES the first extension of suffrage to women was
granted in 1834. Since that time various extensions of suffrage to men
and to women have taken place. The first woman suffrage was given to
widows and spinsters. The disability of married women was removed in
1900, and English and Welsh women now enjoy suffrage in all elections
upon the same terms as men with the sole exception of the right to
vote for members of Parliament.
* * * * *
SCOTLAND--1872--First extension of suffrage to women to elect School
Boards (with eligibility). 1881--Municipal suffrage for unmarried
women (with eligibility). 1900--Disability of married women in
municipal elections removed. 1907--Town and County Council eligibility
for married and unmarried established.
* * * * *
IRELAND--1837--First extension of suffrage to women to elect Poor
Law Guardians. 1887--Municipal suffrage granted the women of Belfast.
1894--Municipal suffrage extended to other cities. 1911--Town
and County Council eligibility for married and unmarried women
established.
APPENDIX B
(In the table below, the 36 male suffrage states are grouped under
classifications which represent, as far as can be represented in a
table, the various degrees of difficulty met in the amending clauses
of State Constitutions.)
A.--Amendment passed by the Legislature or Constitutional Convention:
Delaware: Amendments are not put to the referendum vote.
They must pass two legislatures by a two-thirds majority each time.
The Legislature sits biennially. A Constitutional Convention can also
pass amendments without reference to the people.
B.--Passed by majority one Legislature and majority vote of people on
the referendum or by constitutional convention with referendum:
Missouri--Biennial Legislature. Initiative petition also possible.
South Dakota--Biennial. Constitutional Convention hard to call.
C.--Large Legislative vote necessary:
Florida, three-fifths, biennial.
Georgia, two-thirds, annual.
Maine, two-thirds, biennial.
Michigan, two-thirds, biennial. Initiative petition also possible.
North Carolina, three-fifths, biennial.
Ohio, three-fifths, biennial. Initiative petition also possible.
West Virginia, two-thirds, biennial.
D.--Same as C., but no, or infrequent Constitutional Conventions:
Louisiana, two-thirds, biennial, no Constitutional Convention.
Texas, two-thirds, biennial, no Constitutional Convention.
Maryland, three-fifths, biennial, 20 years interval between
Constitutional Conventions.
E.--Difficult States:
Alabama--Legislature: three-fifths vote of one Legislature
(quadrennial). People: Majority of all votes cast at the election.
Iowa--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (biennial). People:
Majority of all voting for representatives.
Minnesota--Legislature: Majority vote of one Legislature (biennial).
People: Majority of votes at the election.
New York--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (annual). People:
Majority voting on amendment.
Virginia--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (biennial).
People: Majority of people voting on amendment.
Oklahoma--Legislature: Majority vote of one Legislature (biennial).
Initiative petition possible. People: Majority voting at election.
North Dakota--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (biennial).
Initiative petition possible. People: Majority voting on the
amendment. No Constitutional Convention.
South Carolina--Legislature: Two-thirds of two Legislatures
(annual).--One before submission to people; the other after
ratification by them. People: Majority voting for representatives.
Wisconsin--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (biennial).
People: Majority voting at the election.
F.--Very Difficult States:
Arkansas--Legislature: Majority vote of one Legislature (biennial).
People: Majority of all voting at election. Only three amendments at
once. No Constitutional Convention.
Connecticut--Legislature: Majority vote of one Legislature; two-thirds
vote a second Legislature (biennial). People: Majority votes of the
people on the amendment. No Constitutional Convention.
Kentucky--Legislature; three-fifths vote of one Legislature
(biennial). People: Majority of people voting on the amendment. Not
more than two amendments at once.
Massachusetts--Legislature: Majority in Senate and two-thirds House in
two Legislatures (annual). People: Majority voting on the amendment.
No Constitutional Convention.
New Jersey--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (annual).
People: Majority voting on amendment. Same amendment can be submitted
only once in five years. No Constitutional Convention.
Mississippi--Legislature: Two-thirds vote of one Legislature; majority
of a second, after the referendum vote (quadrennial). People: Majority
voting at the election. No Constitutional Convention.
Pennsylvania--Legislature: Majority of the two Legislatures
(biennial). People: Majority of people voting at election. Same
amendment can be submitted only once in five years. No Constitutional
Convention.
Rhode Island--Legislature: Majority of two Legislatures (annual).
People: Three-fifths of all voting at election. No Constitutional
Convention.
Tennessee--Legislature: Majority vote in one Legislature, and a
two-thirds vote in a second (biennial). People: Majority of all voting
for representatives. Same amendment can be submitted only once in six
years.
G.--Most Difficult States:
Vermont--Legislature: Majority in House and two-thirds in Senate
in one Legislature; majority of both houses in a second (biennial).
People: Majority voting on the amendment. No Constitutional
Convention. Constitution can be amended only once in ten years.
New Hampshire--Constitutional Convention alone can propose amendment.
This convention is held once in seven years. People: Two-thirds
majority vote on amendment.
Illinois--Legislature: Two-thirds vote of one Legislature (biennial).
People: Majority voting at the election. Only one amendment at a time.
Same amendment only once in four years.
Indiana--Legislature: Majority vote of two Legislatures (biennial).
People: Majority of voters in state. While one amendment awaits action
no other can be proposed. No Constitutional Convention.
New Mexico--Legislature Three-fourths vote of one Legislature
(biennial). People: Three-fourths of those voting at election;
two-thirds from each county.