State Suffrage Legislation - Allegany County, 1920

SEPTEMBER 20 DATE FOR EXTRA SESSION

Legislature Will Be Convened, Says Ritchie—To Facilitate Woman Vote.

Governor Ritchie announced last evening that he would call the Legislature into special session to convene Monday, September 20, to enact legislation providing additional registration and election facilities to handle women's votes. The formal call, the Governor said, would be issued promptly.

In a statement setting forth the necessity for an extra session, the Governor included a careful calculation as to the number of women who could be registered if there were only the two days in the counties now provided, and the number who would be deprived of the opportunity to register.

Hope for Short Session.

Upon the assumption that as many women are entitled to register in the counties as there are men voters, the Governor found that 60,521 would not have opportunity to register in a two days’ sitting.

That figure was reached by allowing five minutes for the registration of a woman voter. At that rate 12 could be registered in an hour and in the 11 hour registration day of the counties 264 in two days. Making an allowance for registering men and issuing transfers, the Governor figured 250 as the maximum number of women who could be registered in two day in a county precinct.

Subtracting 250 from the number of women eligibles in each precinct, the figure being based on the number of men registered, the difference would be the number of women who could not register. Adding that number for all the precincts in the counties gave him the total of 60,521 who would not have opportunity to register in two days.

Governor Ritchie stated that in Baltimore City many thousands of men and women will be unable to register, and thus will be deprived of their right to vote unless there is additional legislation.

All necessary legislation will be prepared in advance, and the Governor’s influence will be used to have only legislation germane to the subject considered.

The Governor hopes, in that way, to have the session do its work in three or four days and to keep the total cost within a few thousand dollars.

No Senator From Allegany.

Since the adjournment of the legislature, two senators have been appointed to public positions, George Louis Eppler, of Allegany, to be an Industrial Accident Commissioner, and Omar D. Crothers, of Cecil, to be a State Roads Commissioner. It is said that they will not be entitled to their seats during the extra session.

Ex-Senator Eppler, on being appointed to the State Industrial Accident Commission resigned his seat in the Senate and it was accepted by the governor. Mr: Eppler stated this afternoon that he clearly is not a member of the General Assembly and has no intentions of trying for a seat in the Senate during the special session.