it might have changed the result of the 1916 election. Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, was running for re-election against Republican Charles Evans Hughes. In 1916, perhaps the major issue during the election was the Great War then going on in Europe. Some Americans wanted to join it, others wanted to stay out of it. Wilson favored isolationism and Hughes was less anti-war than Wilson. This was also a time when women were most fervently agitating for the right to vote. Women were more in favor of peace than men were. 12 states allowed women to vote at that time (the 19th amendment, extending the right to vote across the nation, would not be passed until 1920). Wilson won, but only by a very narrow margin--277 to 254. And he won some swing states only by a very narrow margin. But he won 10 of the 12 states where women were allowed to vote. Had women not been allowed to vote in those states, it's likely he'd have lost at least some of those states and, hence, the election. Ironically, Hughes favored women's suffrage, while Wilson opposed a constitutional amendment to give women the right to vote. And right after Wilson was re-elected, he brought America into the war, anyway.

Washington Territory gave women the right to vote in 1883 by dropping the word "male" from the phrase "male citizens" in the voting law. Although the state was 76% male, a good number of them were loggers and miners who didn't live (and thus couldn't vote) in town. The women in the towns, however, were very organized and had a very high voter turnout. In the June, 1884 Seattle elections, they voted en masse for a reform ticket of "sober, honest, and efficient" candidates.

The newly-elected reformers voted new laws, and forced the police to enforce existing laws, against 'sinful' establishments. Unfortunately, something like 90% of Seattle's tax revenue from 'sin taxes' on liquor, gambling and prostitution, supported by the loggers and miners and sailors who came to town. One census showed that Seattle's largest industry wasn't logging, mining, or shipping...it was textiles. Although the city had no textile mills and didn't export any clothing, many women listed their occupation as seamstress...who all lived in one part of town in residences listed as boarding houses.

Very shortly, Seattle was broke. The money would have to be made up with taxes on the 'respectable' businesses. So the businessmen played dirty and went to the courts. The case finally made it to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1888, which upheld the lower court's ruling that the word 'citizens' didn't implicitly include women. Women wouldn't regain the right to vote in the Washington territory until 1910.