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Oh, goody, we get to vote on miscegenation
By adamg on Mon, 08/25/2008 - 5:40pm
Attorney General rules referendum on repealed 1913 laws good to go for 2010 ballot - well, provided backers can gather 33,297 valid signatures by Oct. 29.
Yes, it's the law that Mitt Romney used to keep non-locals from marrying within their gender, but it was originally passed to keep non-locals from marrying outside their race.
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Comments
Mass Backward to the Future!
I wonder what other 1913 era laws they would like to reinstate ...
I asked the kids "The year your great grandmother was born, 1912, was a presidential election year. Who did her mother vote for for president?"
I bet somebody here can answer that, not even having known the woman or her daughter.
Those were the days...
Those were the days... sigh
The first thing women did when they got the right to vote was to get rid of all liquor.
(Alright, I realize prohibition was 18th amendment and womens suffrage was 19th, but I figure maybe it was in anticipation ;) )
huh?
Wasn't this repealed through Diane Wilkerson's giant cardboard smile? I saw it in numerous press photos...
I'm unclear as to why the entire state needs to vote to repeal...then again, I wouldn't know the state constitution, if it bit my ass...
This is a referendum to repeal the repeal of the 1912 law
This official page explains how such a referendum is placed on a state ballot.
She Didn't Vote
Great Great Grandma didn't vote in 1912 because women didn't get the vote until 1920.
Also the referendum would reinstate the law, not repeal it again.
Ding! Ding!
You are correct.
Amazingly, my kids and my husband spent some time trying to figure out who ran that year ... not thinking that it was a totally trick question!
I think she would have been too young (20) as well, but it is fun to ask these sorts of things from time to time.
They'd have to know what state she lived in
because a few states had already granted women the right to vote by 1912.
president = federal
Even if states gave women the vote, federal law didn't change until 1919.
Still a state election
There aren't really federal elections, there are only state elections for electors. Several states had already fully enfranchised women by 1912. Montana elected a woman to the US Congress in 1916. Before 1920, nothing in the US Constitution prohibited states from allowing women to vote. The Constitution just didn't require states to allow it.
More recently, several states had voting ages of 18, 19, or 20 already in effect before the US Constitution was amended to require a voting age of 18. Any state today could lower the voting age to 17 if they wanted to.
A History of the American Suffragist Movement
Im glad you cleared that up...
...because most of the local media outlets are depicting MGL Chapter 207, Section 11 as the "Gay Marriage Law," when fact it was drafted for an entirely different purpose. The confusion on this issue is exactly why no changes to the State Constution should be put to a popular vote.
Im glad the Legislature and Gov Patrick repealed this law... now if we could work on removing all those blue laws from the 1600s and the alcohol sales laws from the 1930s, we could really go places! LOL!
Most of the laws are pretty
Most of the laws are pretty harmless and not used. Every so often some guy like Romney, who is barely even from here, walks in and picks out some old law to use for his benefit which sucks. I just wouldnt want to start messing with all the blue laws though because some of them are quite useful. For instance we are one of the only states that have rules about being open on Thanksgiving. I wouldnt want to see this law revoked because I feel that Thanksgiving is the only national holiday that we have that is geared 100 percent towards spending time with your family. I see other states with commerccials with all of these stores open on Thanksgiving which means those workers wont be home and that bothers me. If we repeal all the blue laws I think we would have to lose Thanksgiving being a no work day for almost everyone.