The 19th amendment, ratified 105 years ago, is the most famous marker of women’s voting rights. However, many territories and states had granted women the right to vote decades ago. Wyoming’s territory, for example, was part of Wyoming’s constitution, which enacted the Women’s Voting Rights Act in 1869 and became a state in 1890.
But women who vote in America actually predate the early days of their campaign before Seneca introduced the falls treaty in 1848, which introduced a declaration of sentiment that women would receive “rights and privileges” to belong to as US citizens, including the right to vote. In fact, the constitutional language of states that allowed women to vote existed even at the birth of the country.
Early experiments with women’s voting rights in New Jersey
In 1776, Article IV of the New Jersey Constitution stated that “all residents of the colony of all ages worth £50 are entitled to vote for representatives in councils and councils.” It was not uncommon for a shortage of state constitutions at the time, as in New Jersey, as there was an explicit gender requirement to vote. For example, Delaware’s constitution simply stated, “the right to suffrage… it remains as it is now exercised by law.” Still, the insinuation that he had to be a man to vote in Delaware and elsewhere was strongly hinted at by the “he” who is a strong presence in gender language throughout the document. However, in New Jersey, there is no explicit limit on the right to vote for men, so the constitution has remained open for further clarity, writes Professor Richard P. McCormick.
Further explanations were provided in 1790 when the New Jersey Legislature took the extraordinary step of passing an “election reform” bill that included “he or her.” The bill only applied to seven of the state’s 13 counties, but it was still groundbreaking.
While the passage of this law was initially attributed to Quaker lawmakers in those fields and their unique egalitarian social views, further research has raised additional theories that include that political motivations may have strongly influenced legislator considerations. The reality of the bill’s motivation may live somewhere between progressive suffrageist beliefs and political calculations, but some hoped that at least the public would become more accepting of the idea of women’s participation.
“Women’s rights are no longer strange sounds to the American ears. And when we think that jurisprudence of some states of the Union with the codes that stand out, I eagerly hope for it.”
Regardless of incentives, the law created novel opportunities for fledgling nation women: voting rights. Between 1790 and 1797 they did so in relatively few numbers. When the new election law extended the vote to women across the state in 1797, the proportion of votes increased. In 1802, a newspaper in Trenton, New Jersey reported that women were voting in “Unsettled Heights.” This is about 25% of total voter turnout.
Unfortunately, access to women’s polls was short-lived. Women and suffrages have weathered criticism from those who frequently accused women of “easy manipulation” of various election outcomes. The 1807 local referendum decided on the county’s seats. This included claims that people dressed women to vote twice.
Later that year, the New Jersey Legislature sought to remedy the issue of “voter fraud” by limiting the eligibility for white men to vote. By 1844, when the New Jersey Constitution was reorganized under the Constitutional Convention, lawmakers further enforced the lack of women’s rights to vote. The right of women to vote in states was not approved by ratification of the 19th Amendment as “the right of US citizens to vote will not be denied or denied due to gender, or denied or summarised by the state.”
Modern constitutional voting protection
Today, the state’s constitution is ahead of federal counterparts towards protecting not only women but also voting rights. Of the 50 state constitutions, 49, all but Arizona, recognize the right of citizens to vote on positive terms. More than half of the state’s constitutions use languages that require elections to be free, equal and fair. For example, the Oklahoma constitution states that “all US citizens over the age of 18 who are genuine residents of this state are eligible electors in this state,” and that all elections will be “free and equal.” The federal constitution does not include such guarantees.
State courts rely on drastic protections like these to break laws that restrict voting rights. For example, ahead of the 2024 election, the Montana Supreme Court held that laws that restricted the use of student identification as required voter IDs and excluded election day registrations violated the state constitution.
“Free and Equal” language is interpreted as banning partisan gerrymandering. In Pennsylvania, for example, the High Court broke the 2011 Congress map, saying that “an election corrupted by the large, sophisticated gerrymanders and diluted partisans of votes is “free and not equal.” Other states, such as Arizona, Michigan and Virginia, have amended their constitution to prevent gerrymandering by reducing the role of state legislatures in drawing district lines.
The issues of voting included in constitutional amendments continue to be broad and diverse. In the November 2024 election alone, citizens considered whether to amend the state constitution for voting issues such as primary election procedures, ranked voting, voter IDs, and absentee voting rules.
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From the earliest days of the country, the state constitution played a major role in defining who can vote and how they can vote. Almost 250 years later, that’s still the case.
Joshua Dorasin was previously an intern at the Brennan Judicial Center.
Eringaiger Smith is a writer and editor of the Brennan Center. Thank you for your vote And their companions Young Leader Edition.
Suggested Quote: Joshua Drasin & Erin Geiger Smith, New Jersey constitution allowed women to vote in the 1700ssᴛᴛᴇcᴏᴜʀᴛrᴇᴘᴏʀᴛ (August 18, 2025), https://statecourtreport.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/new-jerseys-constitution-allowed-women-vote-1700s
