Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 February 1920 — WOMEN TO BE DENIED PRIMARY VOTE [ARTICLE]

WOMEN TO BE DENIED PRIMARY VOTE

Indiana women do pot have the right to vote for presidential candidates at the May primary, under existing laws, in the opinion of Charles O. Roemler and Will H. Thompson, Indianapolis attorneys, who met with Frederick E. Schortemeier ,secretary of the Indiana Republican state committee, yesterday afternoon to discuss proposed election law changes and the legal status of voters. It was the opinion of the attorneys that the right conferred upon women to vote for presidential ' electors ih November does not carry with it the right to vote for presidential candidates in the primary. No interpretation of the existing law can give them this night, they said. Their opinion is, in agreement with that expressed recently by W. W. Spencer, Democratic state election commissioner.

The committee also expressed the opinion that women could not be delegates to the state convention for the reason that, under the law, only “qualified electors” can be delegates and it is their interpretation that women will not be “qualified electors” until the Federal suffrage amendment is ratified, at least so far as selecting a state ticket is concerned, which is the work of the state convention.. On the other hand, the committee agreed that women can be delegates to the national convention as the national convention itself is the judge of the qualifications of its delegates.