Election

Voting Fun Facts

Wisconsin became the first state to ratify the 19th amendment to the United States Constitution on June 10, 1919.  The amendment granted suffrage to women in America.  The ratification was the result of the efforts of many different women's rights groups that had been working since 1846. The Wisconsin legislature ratified the amendment granting women the right to vote in federal elections. The Wisconsin constitution was not amended until 1934.

We vote on a Tuesday because in 1845 people traveled by horse and buggy.  Congress decided that farmers needed a day where they can get to the county seat, have a day to vote, and a day to get back, all without interfering with the three days of worship.

November was chosen as the month to vote in because it was very hard to travel by horse and buggy in the wintertime.

Massachusetts became the first state to adopt the secret ballot system in the U.S. in 1888.

Oregon is the first and only state to use automatic voter registration.

Only thirteen states allow voter registration on the day of the election.

In 1876, the final results of the election were not released until two days before the inauguration day. 

The original voting age was 21 years old. Georgia was the first state to change the requirement to 18, and the rest of the country followed suit in 1971 when the 26th Amendment was ratified.

The mechanical lever voting machine was phased out by 2010 in the United States. Most votes are now conducted using electronic digital voting machines or by using paper ballots that are sometimes optically scanned.

You are actually more likely to die by lightning strike, by flesh-eating bacteria, or a shark attack than being a victim or perpetrator in election fraud.