Power of Maine's Vote

After the American Revolution, people in the District of Maine debated and voted six times before finally approving the separation of Maine from Massachusetts.

This document is a report from a Massachusetts committee given the job of examining the voting returns in 1819.

The document lists Maine counties, their total number of voters, and how many voted for and against separation. In total, 17,091 Mainers voted for separation and 7,321 voted against it.

This is the oldest known ballot box used in Maine, from 1796-1818. The most important votes cast in this box decided whether Northport voters wanted Maine to become an independent state.

Between 1792 and 1819, the Maine electorate voted six times whether to leave Massachusetts. At times, the separationists struggled to inspire rural voters to participate. In some instances, voter turnout was so low that the Massachusetts General Court deemed the election results invalid. After the War of 1812, Mainers were more resolved to break from Massachusetts.

According to an attached hand-written note, “[t]his is the first ballot box used in the town of Northport, County of Hancock, District of Maine. Daniel Lawrence, Town Clerk…” The term “District of Maine” indicates this ballot box pre-dates Maine’s statehood.

Did you ever think about how the constitution was written? This is the first working copy of the Maine Constitution. After Maine voted to separate from Massachusetts, a constitutional convention was held in Portland. It started on October 11, 1819. Delegates from across the State were sent to Portland to come up with a new constitution, and the draft was finished later that month.

They used the Massachusetts constitution of 1780 as their model, but there were some important differences. After the draft was approved by the delegates it had to be approved by a vote of the people of Maine. In December, Maine’s people approved the Constitution.

Notice the crossed-out sections of text. They show places where the Convention delegates worked to create it. Notably, one page shows “the Commonwealth of Maine” crossed out and replaced with “the State of Maine.”

This 1820 committee report shows the results of the vote on whether or not to adopt the brand-new Maine constitution. The numbers on the left are the votes that were legally returned, and on the right are not legally returned (meaning there must have been some problem with the votes cast).

After Maine’s 1819 constitutional convention finished their work, Maine voters got to have a say! They could read the new Maine constitution and decide if they should adopt it (make it official). As you can see from the vote, not everyone in Maine agreed that it was a good constitution—but it did get enough votes to pass.

Governor Carl E. Milliken with (left to right) Gertrude Pattangall, Anne Macomber Gannett, Katharine Reed Balentine, Mabel Connor, Grace Hill, and Florence Brooks Whitehouse. The Governor is signing a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Robert Lansing to inform him that the Maine Legislature had ratified the 19th amendment.

The 19th Amendment gave most American women the right to vote. Maine was the 19th state to ratify the Amendment on November 5, 1919. Women’s suffrage was certified as federal law on August 26, 1920.A few days later, the Maine Legislature met in special session to speed up voter registration so women could vote in the election on September 13, 1920.

The people standing behind the Governor in this photo are suffragists—women who worked hard to win voting rights.