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Fifty-One Percent
51%

Women's suffrage and the earliest voters

By Jesse King,
Samantha Simmons
Published March 5, 2026 at 8:00 PM EST

On this week's 51%, we kick off Women's History Month and preview an exhibit about Ulster County’s first elections with women voters in 1918. Women in New York won the right to vote a few years before the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. The Ulster County exhibit, opening March 11 on the second floor of the county office building in Kingston, features archival voter rolls and artifacts from the county board of the elections as well as the League of Women Voters of the Mid-Hudson Region, giving a glimpse into the lives of the everyday women who jumped at the opportunity to vote. WAMC’s Samantha Simmons also brings us a story on how the University at Albany is preserving the legacy of the late author Toni Morrison.

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Guest: Ashely Torres, democratic commissioner of the Ulster County Board of Elections, co-curator of the exhibit "Women Shaping Democracy in Ulster County"

51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio in Albany, New York. Jesse King is our producer and host. Our associate producer is Madeleine Reynolds, and our theme is "Lolita" by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue. This episode also uses the track "Jangwa" by Debra.

Tags
51% womenvotingwomen's rightsToni Morrisonbook
Jesse King
Jesse King is the host of WAMC's national program on women's issues, "51%," and the station's former Hudson Valley bureau chief. She has also produced episodes of the WAMC podcast "A New York Minute In History."
See stories by Jesse King
Samantha Simmons
Weekend Edition Host/Reporter.


She covers Rensselaer County, New York State politics, and local arts and culture.

She can be reached by phone at (518)-465-5233 Ext. 211 or by email at ssimmons@wamc.org.
See stories by Samantha Simmons
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