37. The Prank Candidate Slate
A group of about twenty men from Argonia was upset by both women’s involvement in politics, and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union’s pro-Prohibition stance. So they decided to kill two birds with one stone: get a good laugh, and discourage women from political participation. There was no legal requirement to secure candidates’ consent before placing their names on ballots. So just before Argonia’s 1887 municipal elections, they prepared a slate of candidates comprised of WCTU members, with Susana Salter heading the slate as mayor.
They figured that no man would vote for a woman, Salter would lose, the WCTU would be humiliated, and having learned their lesson, women would grow discouraged and refrain from voting or getting involved in politics in the future. Things did not work out the way the pranksters figured they would.