On November 4, 1890, South Dakota voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have granted women the right to vote, delivering a major defeat to one of the nation's most active women's suffrage campaigns. The referendum occurred only one year after South Dakota entered the Union on November 2, 1889. Despite extensive organizing, national political attention, and the participation of prominent reformers, the amendment received 22,972 favorable votes against 45,682 opposing votes, according to the South Dakota Secretary of State's historical election records. Approximately 67 percent of participating voters opposed the proposal. The result demonstrated the political resistance that women's suffrage advocates faced in a state whose constitutional framework had already established a procedure for reconsidering women's voting rights.
The struggle for women's suffrage in Dakota Territory preceded statehood by several decades. Territorial legislators considered expanding women's voting rights during the 1870s, but proposals failed to secure lasting approval. In 1883, territorial legislation permitted women to participate in certain school elections. Two years later, Representative John A. Pickler of Faulkton supported a broader suffrage bill that passed both chambers of the territorial legislature. Governor Gilbert A. Pierce vetoed the legislation, preventing its implementation. These developments established an organized political foundation for subsequent campaigns and demonstrated that women's voting rights remained a contested question throughout Dakota's territorial period.
South Dakota's constitutional convention of 1889 created an important opportunity for suffrage advocates. Although the new constitution restricted general voting eligibility by sex, it required the legislature to submit a constitutional amendment concerning women's suffrage to voters in 1890. The proposed amendment sought to remove the word "male" from the constitutional provision establishing voting qualifications. This mechanism placed the question directly before the state's electorate and attracted the attention of national suffrage organizations.
Susan B. Anthony identified South Dakota as a major campaign priority in 1889. She visited the state that November and established campaign headquarters in Huron during the following spring. Anthony worked alongside prominent advocates, including Anna Howard Shaw, Emma Smith DeVoe, and Alice M. A. Pickler. Their activities connected South Dakota's developing political institutions with the national movement for equal voting rights. Carrie Chapman Catt and other organizers also participated in the statewide campaign.
Local communities became essential centers of suffrage activity. Organizers established hundreds of associations, distributed campaign literature, and conducted public meetings throughout South Dakota. Contemporary accounts recorded approximately 1,600 addresses delivered by campaign speakers and affiliated reform organizations. Nearly 400 local and county women's organizations participated in the effort. Campaign activities reached communities including Huron, Faulkton, Leola, Aberdeen, Rapid City, Sturgis, Lead, and Deadwood. Anthony addressed an audience at the McPherson County courthouse in Leola on September 20, 1890. During the campaign's final weeks, Anthony and Shaw traveled through the Black Hills, speaking in several mining communities.
Opposition emerged from influential political and economic interests. The Sioux Falls Press and Sioux Falls Argus-Leader published arguments challenging the suffrage movement. Some Democratic and Republican politicians opposed the amendment because of concerns about its possible electoral consequences. Liquor interests also resisted women's enfranchisement, reflecting the connection between suffrage organizations and temperance reform. Although the Farmers' Alliance and Knights of Labor had expressed support for women's voting rights, the emerging Independent Party did not make suffrage an explicit commitment in its platform. Disagreements among suffrage organizers further complicated the campaign.
The November election exposed the limitations of the movement's organizational achievements. Women remained excluded from voting on the amendment that would determine their political status. The referendum coincided with other constitutional questions, including a proposal concerning restrictions on Native American voting rights. Voters rejected that restriction while defeating women's suffrage. The contrasting outcomes reflected the distinct legal and political questions surrounding voting qualifications in the newly established state.
The defeat did not end South Dakota's suffrage movement. Advocates reorganized, maintained local associations, and pursued additional constitutional changes. Subsequent suffrage proposals failed before voters finally approved women's voting rights in 1918. South Dakota ratified the proposed Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in December 1919, before its nationwide ratification in August 1920.
The November 4, 1890, referendum remains significant because it documents the gap between organized demands for political equality and the electorate's willingness to expand citizenship rights. It also preserves the contributions of South Dakota communities and women whose sustained political organizing preceded the state's eventual acceptance of women's suffrage.
References / More Knowledge:
1. South Dakota Secretary of State. South Dakota Ballot Questions, 1890–1968. Historical Election Records. https://sdsos.gov/elections-voting/assets/BallotQuestions%20%282024%29.pdf
2. Wittmayer, Cecelia M. “The 1889–1890 Woman Suffrage Campaign: A Need to Organize.” South Dakota History, vol. 11, no. 3, 1981. South Dakota State Historical Society. https://www.sdhspress.com/journal/south-dakota-history-11-3/the-1889-1890-woman-suffrage-campaign-a-need-to-organize/vol-11-no-3-the-1889-1890-woman-suffrage-campaign.pdf
3. South Dakota Historical Society Foundation. “November 2017: The First Vote for Woman Suffrage in South Dakota.” Monthly History Article, November 2017. https://www.sdhsf.org/news_events/history_articles.html/title/november-2017-the-first-vote-for-woman-suffrage-in-south-dakota
4. South Dakota Historical Society Foundation. “September 2019: Susan B. Anthony Slept Here.” Monthly History Article, September 2019. https://www.sdhsf.org/news_events/history_articles.html/title/september-2019-susan-b-anthony-slept-here
5. National Park Service. “South Dakota and the 19th Amendment.” Women's History and the Nineteenth Amendment, U.S. Department of the Interior. https://www.nps.gov/articles/south-dakota-women-s-history.htm
6. Rozum, Molly P. “Timeline of South Dakota Suffrage, 1889–1890.” History in South Dakota. Historical research incorporating contemporary newspapers and South Dakota archival collections. https://historysouthdakota.wordpress.com/womens-suffrage-in-sodak/timeline-of-south-dakota-suffrage/timeline-of-south-dakota-suffrage-1889-1890/
7. Rozum, Molly P. “Invaluable Out-of-Staters.” History in South Dakota. Research documenting national suffrage organizers and their activities in South Dakota. https://historysouthdakota.wordpress.com/womens-suffrage-in-sodak/invaluable-out-of-staters/
Source clarification: The South Dakota Secretary of State's historical compilation reports 45,682 votes against the amendment, while some South Dakota Historical Society publications report 45,632. The essay uses the Secretary of State's figure of 45,682 and the corresponding total of 68,654 votes.