100 YEARS AGO IN THE SARATOGIAN

Wednesday, May 22, 1918. Woman Suffrage party county chairman Kathryn Starbuck urges the women of Saratoga County to take advantage of their first opportunity to enroll in a political party, The Saratogian reports.

The women of New York State received the right to vote when a constitutional amendment was approved by referendum last November. May 25 is the day when Saratoga Springs and Mechanicville women need to enroll if they want to vote in the party primaries next September. Elsewhere in the county, women can enroll anytime before June 15.

Starbuck does not urge women to enroll in the Woman Suffrage party. That organization, which took the lead in lobbying for last year’s referendum, doesn’t intend to contest elections. Instead, “it will furnish impartial information about all candidates, and will try to be of service in every possible way to the women voters of the county.”

Women should enroll with one of the established parties in order to have a voice in determining which candidates appear on the November general election ballot, Starbuck explains. She adds that enrolling with one party does not oblige you to vote for a straight party ticket in November.

“Enrollment is simply a statement that you intend to support generally the candidates of the party with which you enroll,” Starbuck writes, “but leaves you perfectly free to ‘cut’ any one candidate or for that matter to ‘cut’ the whole ticket if you do not like the men who are on it.”