The Ladies Turned Out: Newport's Women Decided the School Election
A hotly contested school board race drew 220 voters in Newport — and about 125 of them were women, who carried the day for Long and Lusher.
The school election last Saturday was quite warmly contested. The total number of votes cast was 220. For the three-year term John H. Long received 131 votes to 71 for B. M. Lefevre. Justice Lusher had no opposition for the one-year term and received 193 votes. About 125 ladies availed themselves of the right to vote, and it appears that most of them voted for Justices Lusher and Long.
“About 125 ladies availed themselves of the right to vote, and it appears that most of them voted for Justices Lusher and Long.”
Washington women won the school ballot in 1883 and used it in force long before the 19th Amendment — here they were more than half the electorate at a school election and swung the result. School board races remain the door where new voters first change a town's politics, and today's turnout fights in small-district elections still turn on who shows up.
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