Crowd-sourcing a fact for an upcoming column
Wikimedia Commons
Okay readers, many of you often surprise me with your skills at tracking down information on a variety of subjects. So here’s a question that has semi-stumped me recently.
For a person who was born in Virginia in 1920, what was the first year would he or she have been eligible to vote in the commonwealth?
I had been working on the assumption that the answer was 1941 (when that person turned 21). The person in question, however, told me that it was 1938 — age 18. But that person, sharp as she seems, she doesn’t have a precise recollection of that. And she didn’t vote that year, anyway.
I’ve been looking around and if I had to bet I’d still say it was 1941 (voting age 21). But that’s by inference — I’ve been unable to find a source that says explicitly, Virginia’s voting age was 18 in 1938, or that it was 21 until the adoption of the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, on July 1, 1971.
It appears that Georgia and Kentucky were the only states that permitted voting by 18-year-olds before that date. The age was 19 in Alaska and 20 in Hawaii, but those weren’t even states in by 1941.
Can anyone help me nail that one down? The first person who does, and provides a source I consider reputable, I’ll owe a book from Dan’s Bookshelf.
October 27, 2012 - 9:50 AM
Dan
This lnk summarizes the various constitutional changes in Va. from the first adoption of the Va. Constitution. The original voting age was 21. There were no changes indicates in the voting age requirements in any of the Constitutions until 1971. At that time Va. changed the constitution to comply with the new Federal Constitional Amedment which changed the age to 18. Virginia ratified that amendment in July 1971, after it had already become effective by being ratified by the required number of states.. As usual, we were knuckle dragging to the end.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Virginia
Dan
This is the relevant article of the Va. Constitution adfopted in 1902. That Constitution remained in effect until the constitution was revised in 1971.
Article II. Elective Franchise and Qualifications for Office.
Sec. 18. Every male citizen of the United States, twenty-one years of age, who has been a resident of the State two years, of the county, city, or town one year, and of the precinct in which he offers to vote, thirty days, next preceding the election in which he offers to vote, has been registered, and has paid his state poll taxes, as hereinafter required, shall be entitled to vote for members of the General Assembly and all officers elective by the people, but removal from one precinct to another, in the same county, city or town shall not deprive any person of his right to vote in the precinct from which he has moved, until the expiration of thirty days after such removal.
Why would she think she was eligible in 1938?
1) She remembered voting for FDR but didn’t remember that FDR was re-elected in 1944?
2) Are you sure she was born in 1920 and not 1917? What does the 1920, 1920, and 1940 census say?
3) Even though the 19th amendment (women’s suffrage) was ratified in 1920, Virginia didn’t ratify it until 1952. However, they amended the 1902 VA constitution in 1928 to remove the restriction of voting to males (but leaving it as 21 years old). It’s far-fetched that she would remember the 1928 date that VA changed its Constitution as when Virginia women (i.e. she) gained the right to vote, instead of 19th amendment ratification date of 1920, but if she did then it would be easy to remember 1928 as 1938. Talk of the change is in
http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2886&context=wmlr&sei-redir=1
Questions from “Dave”
Why would she think she was eligible in 1938?
Because she believes the voting age was 18 back then, and she was born in 1920. 1920 + 18 = 1938.
1) She remembered voting for FDR but didn’t remember that FDR was re-elected in 1944?
I did not say she remembered voting for FDR. I did not say she remembered voting for anyone. I said she believes she was eligible to vote that year. She did not vote.
2) Are you sure she was born in 1920 and not 1917? What does the 1920, 1920, and 1940 census say?
I took what she told me at face value. I did not ask to see her birth certificate. Why would I check the census? To see if a female had been born in Virginia in 1920? How would that serve as confirmation of anything:?
Dan,
Under Virginia law, voter eligibility is determined by Article II, Section I of the Constitution of Virginia. Following the adoption of an amendment ratified on November 7, 1972 and effective January 1, 1973, the voting age, formerly “twenty-one”, was reduced to “eighteen”.
Rob Dean
All I could find was a reference to only four states having a voting age under 21 and Virginia was not one of them. Georgia 1943, Kentucky 1955, Alaska 1959 and Hawaii 1959.
“By one account, the legislatures of no fewer than 35 States considered reducing the age requirement between 1950 and 1954.” But no more did so until 1971 according to my research.
http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metacrs8805/m1/1/high_res_d/83-103GOV_1983May20.pdf
Dan in #4: Because she believes the voting age was 18 back then, and she was born in 1920. 1920 + 18 = 1938.
Yes, I understand basic math. But she is wrong. The voting age was 21. So instead of just saying she was wrong, I was trying to figure out WHY she was wrong thinking that she was eligible to vote at age 18 in 1938 when she didn’t, and actually couldn’t, vote.
Dan in #4 I did not say she remembered voting for FDR … I said she believes she was eligible to vote that year. She did not vote.
Right. She didn’t vote in 1938. She couldn’t until at least 1920+21=1941
. The only reason I mentioned FDR that he could have served as a time marker for her. The 1st presidential election she could have legally voted in was 1944 for FDR or Dewey. But if she thinks FDR didn’t run in 1944 (perhaps because she thought he had already died) AND she remembers voting for FDR (but didn’t tell you), then she would have assumed that she voted for FDR in 1940 when she was 20. Since the age requirements have been either 21 or 18 years old, she wouldn’t have been old enough to vote in 1940 unless the voting age was 18.
Dan in #4 Why would I check the census? To see if a female had been born in Virginia in 1920? How would that serve as confirmation of anything:?
*IF* she correctly remembers becoming eligible to vote in 1938 but it turns out she was born in 1917 instead of 1920, then the voting age would have been 1938-1917=21.
Dave,
I still don’t understand why I would check the census. How would that offer any determination whatsoever about how old the lady is?
Dan, maybe I can clear up some of this. She was defintely born in 1920. I thought 18 years old sounded wrong too, but was not sure enough to challenge. Bobby
The census has everyone’s age. You can access and search Heritage Quest’s census pages with your Roanoke library id:
http://persi.heritagequestonline.com/hqoweb/library/do/login/ipbarcode?aid=10330
So you know the above is legit, and to see what other research materials the library has online, you can go through Roanoke County’s website to get to it.
http://www.roanokecountyva.gov/index.aspx?nid=573
For Heritage Quest you’d click the “access from home” link.
Bobby Weaver,
Welcome to the blog. I’m trying hard to get everything right with the story about your mom. There are 5 or 6 columns a year I totally fall in love with, and the one about her (Tuesday) is going to be one of those.