Official Hiram, Maine Ballot Sheet with Woman Suffrage and Wartime Amendments

Maine Women’s Suffrage

Ephemera and pamphlets

Maine Secretary of State Frank W. Ball. Hiram, Maine ballot sheet is a 1917 election document recording a statewide vote on women’s suffrage before ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. Proposed Amendment No. 1 states, “The right to vote or to hold office shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex,” placing the sheet within Maine’s contested suffrage campaign, which was defeated by male voters by roughly a two-to-one margin on September 10, 1917. The ballot supports research into women’s voting rights, state constitutional reform, local election administration, and suffrage politics during World War I.

Proposed Constitutional Amendments Ballot. Issued by Frank W. Ball, Secretary of State. Hiram, Maine: State of Maine, September 10, 1917. Unfolded sheet measuring 25" x 9". The sheet presents five proposed amendments for local voters, including Proposed Amendment No. 1 on women’s suffrage and Proposed Amendment No. 4 concerning Article 7 of the Maine Constitution and the deployment of American troops during World War I. The recto bears Ball’s facsimile signature, identifying the document as an official election form used in the town of Hiram.

The ballot’s date gives it particular significance within Maine suffrage history: Maine rejected the 1917 state amendment, then ratified the federal woman suffrage amendment in 1919 before national certification in 1920. Quarter-folded; very minor age-toning to extremities and creases. Overall very good. A local Maine voting document preserving the exact ballot language of a failed state suffrage referendum shortly before federal enfranchisement.

Item #19968

Price: $450.00