This is damn interesting.

Headphones recommend it.

On a December morning in 1916, the polls opened in the small town of Umatilla, Oregon for a municipal

election.

As the day stretched on, the town's men drifted in and out, casting a ballot here or there.

By midday, the men started to wonder what had happened to the women.

For months, the women had talked of their newly gained right to vote.

Women in Oregon won the right to vote in 1912 for eight years before the 19th Amendment. But election morning came and went

without a peep from Umatilla's fairer residence. Perhaps the women had decided they couldn't

spare the time to vote. Perhaps they assumed the incumbents would keep their seats with

no serious opposition on the ticket. Perhaps it simply slipped their minds.

It would fit.

The town city's councilmen often failed or simply forgot to attend council meetings themselves.

The men scratched their heads and looked around.

Chickens ran in the unpaved streets and the sidewalks were broken and cracked under

dark and useless street lights, turned off when the city didn't pay its electric bill.

For years the women had begged, scolded, and commanded the men to clean up the town to no

avail.

Yet when they had the opportunity to speak with their votes, the women's voices were silent.

Or were they? In the early afternoon, the women's voices were silent. Or were they?

In the early afternoon, the women began to arrive at the polling stations, almost all

at once and almost without exception. By the time the polls closed that evening, the women

...