Determined to have a perfect copy for the petition head the suffragists had it prepared by the State Legislative Reference Department and the Secretary of State orally approved it. At the headquarters it was noticed that the words, "Be it resolved by the people of Ohio," which the constitution specifically provided must be on petition heads and which had been on the first one, had been omitted. They asked the Secretary of State whether this jeopardized the petition and it was his opinion that it did, although he had approved it. The Attorney General finally gave it official sanction and the first petitions were put out in March, 1914, after one year's continuous effort to get them into circulation. Who but women fighting for their freedom could ever have had the courage to keep on? They had no money to pay circulators and all was volunteer work. Over 2,000 women circulated these petitions. To have more than 130,000 men write their names and addresses on a petition and the circulator see them do it and swear that she did was no light task but it was accomplished. On July 30 petitions bearing 131,271 names were filed with the Secretary of State. A petition was secured in every county, although the law requires them from a majority only, and each was presented by a worker from that county. The sight of scores of men and women with arms laden with petitions marching up to the State House to deposit them brought tears to the eyes of some of the onlookers.
The campaign opened in Toledo, April 14, 15, was hectic. Everything possible was done to bring the amendment to the attention of the voters. Cleveland suffragists put on a beautiful pageant, A Dream of Freedom. A pilgrimage was made to the Friends' Meeting House in Salem where the suffrage convention of 1850 was held and the resolutions of those pioneers were re-adopted by a large, enthusiastic audience. Women followed party speakers, taking their audiences before and after the political meeting. State conventions of all sorts were appealed to and many gave endorsement, those of the Republicans and the Democrats refusing. Groups of workers would visit a county, separate and canvass all the towns and then keep up their courage by returning to the county seat at night and comparing notes. Street meetings and noon meetings for working people were held. Everything which had been tried out in any campaign was done.
From the beginning of 1913 to the election in November, 1914, there was constant work done for the amendment. The total number of votes cast on it was 853,685; against, 518,295; for 335,390; lost by 182,905 votes. There were gains in every county but only 14 were carried, where there had been 24 in 1912.
That the liquor interests and the anti-suffragists worked together was clearly established. The Saturday preceding the election the president of the State Suffrage association saw in her own city of Warren a man distributing literature from door to door and accompanied by a witness she followed him and picked up several packages in different parts of the city. They contained two leaflets, one giving information on how to vote on the Home Rule or "wet" amendment, the other giving instructions how to vote against the suffrage amendment. The latter had a facsimile ballot marked against it and was signed by five women. The Liberal Advocate of Oct. 21, 1914, (official organ of the liquor interests), published at Columbus, had a picture and a write-up of Mrs. A. J. George of Brookline, a speaker from the Massachusetts Anti-Suffrage Association, with a headline saying that she would be present at a luncheon of anti-suffragists on the 27th in that city and also speak elsewhere in the State.
After the defeats of 1912 and 1914 the suffragists abandoned the idea of carrying an amendment. The revised constitution provided for "home rule" for cities, which allowed them to adopt their own charters instead of going to the Legislature. Suffragists believed that these charters could provide for woman suffrage in municipal affairs. In 1916 East Cleveland decided to frame a charter and they saw a chance to make a test. This campaign was the work of the Woman Suffrage Party of Greater Cleveland. On June 6 a city charter was submitted to the voters and adopted including woman suffrage. A suit was brought to test its constitutionality and it was argued in the Supreme Court, one of the lawyers being a woman, Miss Florence E. Allen.[142] By agreement between the court and election officials women voted at the regular municipal election in November. The court upheld its validity April 3, 1917, and the constitutionality of Municipal woman suffrage in charter cities was established.
In the fall of 1917 the women of Lakewood, a city adjoining Cleveland on the west, gave municipal suffrage to its women by charter after a vigorous campaign. Columbus undertook to put this in its charter and a bitter campaign took place. It was the house to house canvass and the courageous work of the Columbus women and State suffrage officers which brought the victory when it was voted on at the election in August, 1917. Sandusky was not successful.
A partial poll of the Legislature on the subject of Presidential suffrage for women in 1915 had shown that it would be futile to attempt it but after endorsements of woman suffrage by the national party conventions in 1916 it was determined to try.
The Legislature of 1917 was Democratic and Representative James A. Reynolds (Cleveland) met the State suffrage workers upon their arrival in Columbus for the opening of the session and informed them that he was going to sponsor their bill. On January 16 Representative Pratt, Republican, of Ashtabula and Mr. Reynolds, Democrat, each introduced a measure for Presidential suffrage. By agreement the Reynolds bill was chosen and he fought the battle for it against great odds. He was the one anti-prohibitionist who worked for it, considering it his duty and his privilege, and, because of his standing and because his party was in power, he was the only one perhaps who could have carried it through. He stood by the suffragists until Tennessee had ratified and the contest was over.
On Jan. 30, 1917, the bill to give women a vote for Presidential electors was reported favorably from the House Committee on Elections, and on February 1 it passed the House by 72 ayes, 50 noes, fifty-five per cent. of the Democratic members voting for it and sixty-nine per cent of the Republicans. In the Senate the leader of the "wets" introduced a resolution for the submission of a full suffrage amendment in the hope of sidetracking the Reynolds bill but the latter reached the Senate February 2, before the Holden bill could be considered. The suffragists, wishing to expedite matters, did not ask for a hearing but the "antis" did and at Mr. Reynolds' request the former were present. At this hearing the women leaders of the "antis" and the liquor men occupied seats together on the floor of the Senate. The next morning the bill was reported favorably from the Federal Relations Committee and passed on February 14, by 19 ayes, 17 noes. Immediately the leader of the opposition changed his vote to yes in order to move a reconsideration. This he was not permitted to do because a friend of the measure forced the reconsideration the next day, and as this was lost by a vote of 24 to 10, the bill itself went on record as having received the vote of the "wet" leader and having passed by 20 to 16. Governor James M. Cox signed it Feb. 21.
Very soon the opponents opened headquarters in Columbus and circulated petitions to have the Presidential suffrage bill referred to the voters for repeal. The story of these petitions is a disgraceful one. Four-fifths of the signatures were gathered in saloons, the petitions kept on the back and front bars. Hundreds of names were certified to by men who declared they saw them signed, an impossibility unless they stood by the bar eighteen hours each day for some weeks and watched every signature. Some petitions, according to the dates they bore, were circulated by the same men in different counties on the same day. Some of them had whole pages of signatures written in the same hand and some had names only, no addresses. The suffragists copied some of these petitions after they were filed in Columbus and although the time was short brought suit to prove them fraudulent in six counties. In four the court ordered all but a few names thrown out. In Scioto all the names were rejected and in Cuyahoga county (Cleveland), 7,000 names were thrown out. The petitions in Franklin county (Columbus), Lucas (Toledo) and Montgomery (Dayton) were unquestionably fraudulent but the election boards were hostile to woman suffrage and powerful with the courts and refused to bring cases. When suffrage leaders attempted to intervene the courts declared they had no jurisdiction.