During the COVID-19 pandemic, states begin to cancel primary elections or switch to all-mail ballots to reduce the risk to residents’ health. The Washington Post reports that the Republican National Committee is attempting to limit the expansion of mail-in voting before the November election, an effort that could further disenfranchise…

Virginia becomes the latest state to ratify the ERA, bringing the total number of state ERA ratifications to 38, or three-fourths of the 50 states—the number needed to validate the amendment. However, due to expired ratification deadlines and states’ previous revocation of the ratification, constitutional experts acknowledge that the impact…

The Center for American Women and Politics reports that the proportion of eligible female adults who voted has exceeded the proportion of eligible male adults who voted in every presidential election since 1980, with women outvoting men by 10 million ballots in each of the last two presidential elections.

Hillary Clinton becomes the first woman to secure a major party’s US presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention.  

The Center for American Progress reports that, in the 2012 presidential election, Black women voted at a higher rate than any other demographic group. The report also states that women are now the country’s largest voting bloc, and that women of color are the fastest-growing segment of that bloc, with…

President Bill Clinton signs the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) into law. The law addresses states’ racial discrimination in voter registration by requiring state governments to offer voter registration to driver’s license and public assistance applicants, making it easier for voters to register and maintain that registration. It also allows…

Music executives found Rock the Vote, a nonprofit organization that aims to increase turnout among voters aged 18 to 24. In 1996, the organization creates the first telephone and online voter registration systems.  

Geraldine Ferraro becomes the first woman to run on a major party’s national ticket when she is selected as Walter Mondale’s running mate at the Democratic National Convention.  

After the amendment’s reintroduction to Congress in 1971, the US Senate approves the ERA and Hawaii becomes the first state to ratify it. Thirty-five states join Hawaii in ratifying the amendment through 1977, with California ratifying it on November 13, 1972. However, prior to the ratification deadline of March 22,…

Shirley Chisholm becomes the first Black candidate for a major party’s nomination for president of the United States. She also becomes the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, as well as the first woman to appear in a US presidential debate.  

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act into law. The act enforces the voting rights guaranteed by the 14th and 15th Amendments and prohibits state and local governments from imposing voting laws that result in discrimination against underrepresented racial or linguistic groups. Congress later amends the act five…

Suffragettes Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman introduce the first version of an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to Congress. The ERA is a proposed amendment to the Constitution that would guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex and end legal distinctions between men and women in matters…

Congress passes the 19th Amendment on June 4, 1919, declaring that “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” However, three-fourths of US states—or 36 out of 48—must ratify the…

In a special election, California voters approve Proposition 4, which grants women in California the right to vote for the first time. Black suffragettes Lydia Flood Jackson and Hettie B. Tilghman are active in the movement leading up to the 1911 campaign, as is Latina organizer Maria de Lopez. However,…