Groups want to remind women of voting rights

Kirsten Searer

Monday, July 18, 2005 | 10:44 a.m.

Nevada was below the national average in the number of women who voted in the 2004 election:

Source: U.S. Census

Women won the right to vote in 1920, but local organizations are working to ensure Nevadans don't forget that it was a hard-fought privilege.

Nevada, after all, ranked 48th in the nation in the percentage of women registered to vote in the 2004 election, according to U.S. Census numbers.

"Women have had the right to vote for coming up on 85 years now," said Julianna Ormsby, a program manager of the Women's Research Institute of Nevada, who also teaches at the Women's Studies Department at UNLV. "Younger generations don't think about that."

Eighteen groups hope to register 1,530 women Tuesday at local libraries, parks and recreation facilities throughout the valley.

They chose July 19 because it is the 157th anniversary of a Seneca Falls, N.Y., convention that kicked off the suffrage movement.

The effort is supported by Secretary of State Dean Heller, who will announce the results on Tuesday afternoon.

"Women traditionally do not vote in as high numbers as men," said Heller spokesman Steve George. "And, of course, they have other issues that may be more important to them than men."

Women might differ from men on issues such as health care, sexual discrimination in the work place and family leave, the coalition argues.

Nevada ranks low in the number of women who vote, but that's indicative of the overall number of people in the state who participate in the voting process.

Just 56.8 percent of the total Nevada population was registered to vote in the 2004 election, compared to the national average of 65.9 percent of people. The low average is attributed to the state's transient population.

"So many people are moving here a month, especially down in Clark County," George said. "They don't feel like they are involved in the process. They don't know the issues, they don't know the candidates."

Ormsby said an increased number of women voters could bring more women into public office.

A recent study at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, ranked Nevada third in the number of women who serve in the Legislature.

Yet Nevada has never had a female governor or U.S. senator. And even though the state ranks high among other states, just 33.3 percent of Nevada's legislators are women, Ormsby pointed out.

The effort to register voters Tuesday includes groups such as the League of Women Voters of Nevada and the National Organization for Women.

They were inspired by two Henderson girls, 8-year-old Hannah Low and 9-year-old Destiny Carroll, who gathered 250 signatures last year calling for a national holiday to honor people who fought for the right to vote.

The girls gathered the signatures after reading a book that detailed the struggles women endured to win the right to vote, including holding long protests in cold weather and even enduring divorces.

The two girls went to Washington last week when Rep. Shelley Berkley introduced a bill to create a National Women's Suffrage Day.

"It's important to honor these two girls who came up with the idea," Ormsby said. "I just see us as along for the ride."