This week is an exciting week as we are called as Americans to cast votes for federal, state, and local candidates. It can be so challenging and overwhelming with all the political ads and rhetoric and propaganda over the past several weeks. I don’t know about you, but I get to the point that I just want to throw up my hands and say “Forget this!!” But that will definitely solve the problems our country is currently facing. We may not feel like our one little vote even matters, but it does. It really does. So I encourage you to make the trip to the polls, cast your vote, and get that sticker! Wear it proudly! And, who knows…. maybe you will get the opportunity to do some witnessing while you’re at it. :)
Voting is not only a Constitutional right, but also a Christian duty. In his blog post titled, How to Vote Like Jesus, Josh Howerton provides us with great justification for voting and what we need to focus on when we head to the polls. Below is a quote, but I hope you will read the entire post to be inspired and informed on how to vote like Jesus.
“So do not sit out or check your faith at the ballot box. Do not vote your feelings, tribe or party. Vote the Word. Vote the issues that Scripture speaks to directly. Evaluate candidates through a Biblical lens. And above all, keep your ultimate allegiance where it belongs—not to a party, not to a platform, not to a nation, but to the King of kings who is Lord over all of them.”
Have you ever wondered when and how women in West Virginia gained the right to vote? I did a little digging and found the following information to give us insights to how precious our rights really are here in WV. I encourage each of you to spend time in fervent prayer asking God to give you guidance on who’s box to click, then go out to your local poll and cast your vote!!
1867: State Senator Samuel Young introduced the first unsuccessful bill to give women the right to vote in West Virginia.
1895: The West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association (WVSEA) was founded in Grafton, uniting local suffrage clubs from cities like Wheeling and Fairmont.
1913–1916: A woman suffrage amendment passed the state House of Delegates in 1913, but failed in the state Senate. Legislators later put the question to a statewide referendum in November 1916, which male voters overwhelmingly rejected (about 71.8% to 28.2%).
1919–1920: After Congress passed the 19th Amendment in June 1919, Governor John Jacob Cornwell called a special legislative session in early 1920 to consider ratification.
The March 10, 1920 Vote: The state House quickly approved the amendment, but the state Senate deadlocked. Senator Jesse Bloch rushed back from a vacation in California to cast the dramatic 15–14 tie-breaking vote that made West Virginia a ratifying state, just months before the amendment was nationally certified on August 26, 1920.
Sources:
Effland, A. W. P. (2010). Woman suffrage. In The West Virginia Encyclopedia. Ken Sullivan. https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/entries/1282
Marshall University Libraries. (2020). Commemorating the 19th amendment Centennial: West Virginia's role in women's suffrage. Marshall Digital Scholar. https://mds.marshall.edu/colaconf/2020/archival_files_covid/46/
