The Weight of Their Votes: Southern Women and Political Leverage in the 1920s

Appendix

Appendix Data for tables A.1 though A.4 are from a variety of sources. For state-level presidential election returns, I consulted the U.S. Historical Election Returns online database. For primary data, I consulted Heard and Strong, Southern Primaries and Elections, 1920–1949. Louisiana was the only state in this study to collect registration data by race and gender. Those statistics were published annually in the Report of Secretary of State to His Excellency the Governor of Louisiana and are represented in table A.4. There is reason to be skeptical of all southern election data from the 1920s. Despite the Herculean efforts of Heard and Strong to collect precise county-level election returns, data from several counties in any given election remain missing. Moreover, reports of fraud were prevalent enough to question the accuracy of registration lists and ballot counts. Nevertheless, the aggregate, state-level data presented here provides an important sense of the magnitude of woman suffrage as well as the patterns of voting and nonvoting in the various states. Table A.1. Presidential Election Returns, 1916–1920   – Total Total Change Change Change Total Democratic Republican Other Total Dem. Repub. Other in Total in Repub. in Dem. State Vote Vote Vote Votes Vote Vote Vote Votes Vote Vote Vote Alabama , , , , , , , , , , , Arkansas , , , , , , , , , , –, Georgia , , , , , , ,  –, , –, Kentucky , , , , , , , , , , , Louisiana , , , , , , ,  , , , Mississippi , , , , , , , , –, , –, North Carolina , , ,  , , ,  , , , South Carolina , , ,  , , ,  ,  , Tennessee , , , , , , , , , , , Texas , , , , , , , , , , , Virginia , , , , , , , , , , , Appendix 233 Table A.2. Primary Voter Strength, First Primary with Women Voters Primary Primary Total without with Change in Percent State Races Compared Women Women Voters Change Primary for senator Alabamaa  v.  , , ,  Primary for governor Georgiab  v.  , , –, – Primary for governor Louisiana  v.  , , ,  Primary for governor Mississippi  v.  , , ,  Primary for governor North Carolina  v.  , , ,  Primary for senator South Carolina  v.  , , ,  Primary for governor Tennessee  v.  , , ,  aAlabama voters in the 1920s cast “preferential ballots” in state primaries. That is, voters selected their first and second choice candidates in each race. For purposes of this analysis , I counted only first-choice votes. bIn the first primary in which Georgia women voted, the gubernatorial primary featured a rematch from 1920 with an incumbent running, which may have depressed turnout. Table A.3. Presidential Elections Returns, 1912–1932 State Total Vote  Total Vote  Total Vote  Total Vote  Total Vote  Total Vote  Alabama , , , , , , Arkansas , , , , , , Georgia , , , , , , Kentucky , , , , , , Louisiana , , , , , , Mississippi , , , , , , North Carolina , , , , , , South Carolina , , , , , , Tennessee , , , , , , Texas , , , , , , Virginia , , , , , , Table A.4. Louisiana Voter Registration Data, 1920–1932 March ,  October ,  March ,  October ,  March ,  October ,  March ,  White men , , , , , , , White women  , , , , , , Black men , ,   , , , Black women  ,      Total voters , , , , , , , Women as fraction of total . . . . . . . Black voters as fraction of total . . . . . . . This page intentionally left blank ...