1790 Election Law
Source: Acts of the 15th New Jersey
General Assembly, November 18, 1790, 670. Courtesy,
Special
Collections/University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries.
Passed by a
Federalist-dominated legislature, the Election Law of 1790 referred to voters as he and she and thus
implied the vote for women who could pass property and residency requirements. The law
applied, however, to only seven of the states thirteen counties, and these seven were
those which had the greatest Federalist and Quaker vote. Women did vote after 1790, but it
is not know in what numbers. This excerpt from the law includes the relevant clause: And no person
shall be entitled to vote in any other Township or Precinct, than that in which her or she
doth actually reside at the Time of the Election...
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