“Why You Should Register”, The Arizona Daily Star, 13 April 1913 Sunday Morning, Section 2 Front Page. Transcription by Karen Board Moran.
WHY YOU SHOULD REGISTER
“Do you really have to tell how old you are?”
“Are there any horrid men standing around listening?”
“Do you have to tell your whole family history and just what your favorite recipe is?”
“Do you have to go into a little booth all by your lonesome and swear to tell the truth and nothing else, so help you forever and ever?”
“Do you have to sign your name more than eighty times, and write down your preference for silk gloves?”
“Do you have to tell why you want to vote, when you really haven’t thought much about it?”
“Do you have to tell whether you think Emmeline Pankhurst [a militant leader of the British suffragette movement] is right or wrong and why?”
“Do you have to recite the constitution of the United States from start to finish by heart, and then swear you believe every word of it?”
“Do you have to tell who your husband’s parents and favorite great aunt were?”
“Do you have, in other words, to particularize about everything, and then state whether you are really a good citizen, when you aren’t sure whether you are or not?”
These are some of the questions that are liable to be asked you any time now if you inquire whether “she” has registered or not.
Of course you want to register first yourself; so you can explain how easy and simple it is, and don’t forget to dwell upon the importance of it either.
For be it known to you society woman, business woman, home woman, and woman of every walk in life, that the Great Register is now open and ready to receive your name, in order that you many cast your vote at the next election, special, general, emergency, or whatever it is.
Over the phone Saturday inquiries were coming in by the dozens concerning this and as it is supposed that most women at least read the society columns (which, if they don’t we’re lost) it is hereby set forth that women may register at any time they choose between now and May 1.
May 1, however, the Big Book closes, and if there is a special election and you have not registered, Fair One, you will lose your vote, so it’s up to you to get busy during the next fifteen days. The senators and representative have made an emergency clause for this purpose so you can have something to say at the next election, and now that you have the franchise that you have fought for so hard, don’t fail to take advantage of it.
There is nothing the lease bit embarrassing about registering your name in the Great Register in the recorder’s office at the court house, for that is where you must go. There are two young women in that office who will assist you, and this is the time to go, for the men will not register until later, most of them having already registered. The only requirements are that you must have lived in Arizona for at least one year, that you are able to read the constitution of the United States, and that you are over twenty-one years of age. It is not necessary that you say how much over twenty-one you are, in fact, it is understood that you are twenty-one if you go to register. There are no intimate questions; there is nothing in the least troublesome about it in any way. Just because you have never gone to register before is no reason that you should hesitate now. Now is the accepted time, and there are only about two weeks left.
There’s no time like the present for registering your name as a voter in the great state of Arizona, and you may miss something if you don’t take advantage of the opportunity.
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Transcriber’s note:
The next item was “COLLEGIATE CLUB HOLDS IMPORTANT MEETING”.
There is great interest in having the women of Tucson register. “Civic questions have held the floor at the past few meetings of this live[ly] club of college women, and it is their desire to have the women of the city register so that they shall have something to say concerning “what’s what” in municipal, county and city politics and questions.” Certain club members will be at the court house Saturday, April 19 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. to assist. The club “will work among their friends in an effort to have at least a hundred or more register…”
[The Collegiate Club was the precursor of the American Association of University Women which continues to help women to register and become educated voters.]