The activities of the State association were at once turned to the education of the voters. It had been long thought by both State and national leaders that if the amendment could be brought before them they would give a large majority for it. Probably no State ever went into a campaign under more favorable auspices and until the last few weeks it seemed that victory was certain and the women had learned that it was not entirely a State matter but one of national interest. The national president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, gave six weeks of time to the campaign and liberal contributions of money, as she considered Iowa her State, having spent a large part of her life there. The honorary president, Dr. Shaw, other national officers, State presidents and men and women suffragists from many other States rendered valuable help in time, money and service of all sorts. Large numbers of Iowa women who had never helped before now did effective work. The long-time suffragists devoted themselves wholly to the campaign. Many Iowa men gave great assistance. A Men's League for Woman Suffrage, John H. Denison, president, was organized with headquarters at Des Moines and branches in all the large cities, forty altogether. These leagues not only assisted with counsel but raised funds, placed speakers and helped get out the vote. O. G. Geyer was the executive secretary and the State offices of the League adjoined those of the State Suffrage Association. There were the closest cooperation and the greatest harmony in the work of the two organizations. An unusually well-conducted press campaign was carried on with Mrs. Rose Lawless Geyer at the head of the press department and she and Miss Alice B. Curtis, executive secretary, gave long hours and invaluable service to the campaign. Five-sixths of the newspapers not only used plate matter and a weekly press letter but supported the cause editorially and some of them refused the paid advertising of the "antis."
Dr. Effie McCollum Jones was finance secretary; Miss Mabel Lodge was the first organizer in the field and there is a long list of men and women whose names deserve mention for the abundant time and unstinted devotion they gave to the campaign. In some of the counties along the Mississippi River, where the situation was the most difficult, were strong groups of men and women workers. Miss Anna B. Lawther of Dubuque headed one of the most active and the record of the river counties would have been even blacker than it was but for the herculean work that they did. In Keokuk, the most southern city on the river, this was so effective that it alone was a white spot in the long, black line when the election returns came in. Each of the eleven Congressional districts had an organizer in charge from January until election day. In every one of the ninety counties there was organization. Nine-tenths of them opened headquarters from one to three months before the end of the campaign and 2,000 precinct workers were enrolled. The whole State was covered by auto-trips in the last month. Approximately 5,000,000 pieces of literature were distributed, much of it especially printed to meet local needs and the false statements circulated by the opposition. One cent postage for one circularization of the voters of Iowa cost $5,000.
As suffragists throughout the nation gave their help, so the opponents outside the State tried to defeat the amendment. The women's National Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage sent a number of its paid workers and a considerable sum of money into the State. There was a small anti-suffrage organization in Iowa during the campaign affiliated with this national association, with branches in Des Moines, Davenport, Clinton, Sioux City and a few other places. Mrs. Simon Casady of Des Moines was State president. John P. Irish, a former resident, came from California under its auspices to work against the amendment but the press department widely circulated his favorable declarations for woman suffrage in early years and reprinted his editorials written during the Civil War, in which his disloyalty to Lincoln and to the Union was shown. He was much disturbed by this publicity concerning his past and soon left the State. The women's anti-suffrage association did no particular harm but the forces of evil with which it was allied did great damage and in the end defeated the amendment. Iowa women had believed that their men were free from entanglements with these forces but they learned that no State line bars out the elements which work against democracy and the influence of women in government.
In spite of these opposing forces the amendment would have won but for political complications which arose during the last few weeks of the campaign. It became necessary for the Republican party to sacrifice woman suffrage to its "wet" candidate for Governor, as it felt sure that he could not be elected in November if the vote should be given to women in June. A prominent supporter said openly: "We had to do it in self-defense."
The special election and the primary election were held on June 5, 1916, and after several days of waiting the final returns showed that the amendment was defeated—ayes, 162,683; noes, 173,024—lost by 10,341 votes.
The adverse vote was almost entirely in the counties along the Mississippi River. They were in revolt against the State prohibition law and there was constant evasion of it and agitation for its repeal. Naturally those opposed to prohibition were also opposed to woman suffrage. The vote in these counties was large enough to overcome the vote in the central and western counties where the sentiment was generally "dry." Des Moines, the capital and largest city in the State, voted in favor; Sioux City, the second largest, recorded a small adverse vote; Council Bluffs on the western border returned a favorable majority; Keokuk on the river in the southeastern corner of the State was carried, but all the other cities on the eastern border voted "wet." The river counties of Dubuque, Scott and Clinton gave 9,383 of the 10,341 adverse majority. They were the stronghold for the commercial liquor interests of the State. The Republican candidate for Governor received a majority of 126,754 and this party could easily have carried the amendment.
It was evident that there were many irregularities in the election and the board of the State Suffrage Association conferred with competent attorneys but after much consultation it was decided that it would not be practical to contest it. The defeat of the amendment was a serious disappointment to the temperance forces and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union determined to have the returns canvassed and if possible discover the cause. The election proceedings and officials returns were investigated in 44 counties and the report in affidavit form consisted of 200 closely typewritten pages. The Des Moines Register of Oct. 15, 1916, said of this report:
The investigation revealed several strange conditions. The records in the Secretary of State's office disclose that there were 29,341 more votes cast on the equal suffrage amendment than the total cast for all candidates for Governor by all parties. The canvass in these 44 counties, however, shows that there were 13,609 more names listed as voting, as shown by the poll books, than there were suffrage ballots. Add to this the 2,289 votes where certain precincts show more votes on the amendment than names recorded in the poll books and altogether 15,898 more names are found on the poll books than there were ballots cast on woman suffrage. If this proportion is maintained in the other fifty-five counties, there would be approximately 30,000 more voters listed than there were votes on the amendment. The question the investigator raises is: "Did 60,000 men go to the polls and fail to vote a primary ballot, and did 30,000 of these fail to vote on the amendment? Did 30,000 go to the polls and fail to vote for anybody or anything?"
The W. C. T. U. can draw but one conclusion from this condition, namely, that they were defrauded out of their right to the ballot.
The investigators found that in the 44 counties ... 4,743 ballots, shown to have been cast by the list of voters, are absolutely unaccounted for.... In 15 counties it was found that in certain precincts 2,239 more ballots were certified than there were names on the list of voters.... In 15 counties there were 8,067 more ballots on the amendment than there were voters checked as having voted.
In 30 counties where the combination poll books were used no voter was checked as having voted, but the certificates show that 55,107 votes were cast on the amendment. In 27 cities canvassed, a total disregard or ignorance of the registration laws in nearly all precincts appears and in many of these the violations are most flagrant.
The law requires that the judges and clerks of election shall make out a certificate showing the total number of votes cast, the number voting "yes" or "no" or "rejected." A total of 9,320 votes in these counties are not properly certified to and the "true return" is not signed in many instances by any of the clerks or judges and in others not by all. In this class 27,362 votes were affected. In six counties certificates properly signed by the clerks and judges had been changed by a different hand and in some cases several different precincts had been changed by the same hand....
Many other instances were given of incompetence and dishonesty beyond question, but, notwithstanding this positive evidence, the legal requirements and restrictions were such as made any effort for a recount or another election of no avail.[51]