Radiolab - One Vote

Episode Date: November 7, 2016

Come election season, it's easy to get cynical. Why cast a ballot if your single measly vote can't possibly change anything? In our first-ever election special, we set off to find a single vote that made a difference. We venture from the biggest election on the planet - where polling officials must brave a lion-inhabited forest to collect the vote of an ascetic temple priest - to the smallest election on the planet - where there are no polling officials, only kitty cats wearing nametags. Along the way, we meet a too-trusting advice columnist, a Texan Emperor, and a passive-aggressive mom who helped change American democracy forever.  Reported by Latif Nasser with help from Tracie Hunte. Produced by Simon Adler, Tracie Hunte, Matt Kielty, Annie McEwen and Latif Nasser.  Special thanks to The Plymouth Fife and Drum Corps and their director Jim Predhomme. Special thanks also to Professors Timothy Harris, Krista Kesselring, Charles Somerwine, Jim Lehring, Isabel DiVanna, Sara Bronin, Wanda Sobieski, Paula F. Casey, Andrea Mansker, and Jenny Diamond Cheng. Thanks to the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound. And thanks as well to Cindy Horswell, Robin Melvin, Ken Herman, Laura Harrington and Mel Marvin.  Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate.   

Wait, you're listening. Okay. All right. You're listening to Radio Lab. Radio Lab. From W. N. Y. C. See?

Yeah. Okay. So how are we going to start this? Well, I think we should start. Wait, wait. First of all, I'm Robert Crulwich. This is Radio Lab. And today we're going to start with our producer, Lettif Nasser. Now, now you.

Okay. Let me take you to the biggest democracy on the planet. Yes, it is. You know, in fact, we have more voters than every continent. India. Ah. Over 800 million voters. We have 90 countries rolled into one. And from 2010 to 2012, this guy, S.Y. Kureishi...

Yes, S.Y. Qureshi. ...was in charge of the whole thing. I was the chief election commissioner of India from 2010 to 12. And before that, election commissioner for four years. And Kureishi told me something that just astonished me. They have this crazy rule. Our principle is that... we would like a polling station to be within walking distance, maximum to kilometers.

So not a single of the 800 million plus voters has to travel more than a mile in a bit to get to a polling station. So no matter where you are in that giant country that is India. This is true? Yes. We have polling stations in the deep forest and on the mountains where it will take three days to walk. There is no other way you can reach there. So we have used helicopters.

We also send our polling party on camels, on elephants. on views, on bicycle, on motorcycle, on boats, whatever it takes. Which brings us to the Geer Forest. We have a polling station in Geer Forest of Gujarat only for one voter. So in Gujarat, there is a forest, and there is a temple priest who lives inside a temple deep, deep in this forest. By himself. Yeah.

And so what Qureshi would do is every election, he'd send. team into that forest, which, by the way, is the home to the Asiatic lion. Oh. And there are regular reports of lions actually attacking people. And basically, these guys trek 12 and a half miles into the forest, dragging along with them, this voting machine, until they get to this, like, it's like a little forest outpost. They get there, they sleep overnight, and then early the next morning set up the polling station, and then they wait.

They just wait for this guy. for him to come and vote. And there's actually a video on YouTube of this guy emerging from the forest to vote. His name is Mahant Barat Das Darshandar. He's wearing traditional clothes, you know, this long, sorongy type skirt.

So he walks into this little station. Fills out his ballot. Gets his finger painted with a little red, That dot, right? That's to make sure he doesn't vote twice, which would be a little hard to pull off in this situation. But anyway, he fills out his ballot and then his vote gets counted. This could be the most effort ever put into making a single person able to cast a vote. And this is done again because no voting Indian should be denied a place to vote at a convention.

convenient location. That's right. That's right. It's a kind of beautifully noble idea. Some people say that why do you have a polling? Why do you waste money for one voter? Because our principle is that every single vote counts. But it's not like that guy's vote actually made a difference. Of course it made every, this is a beautiful thing to have a vote. Yeah. It's a beautiful thing in principle, but it's not. Well, principle. It's not. It's not. It's not. Not like one vote actually is ever decisive. Like one vote never really makes all the different. I mean you want one vote changes the world kind of thing?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. If not for that one vote, things would be different. So I decided to dig around. Yes. And this is the first thing I came across. November 1996, the day before the Clinton-Dole presidential election. Okay. And Landers.

Chicago columnist. Rights in her column. Dear readers, tomorrow is election day. If you don't bother to vote, you have no right to complain about who gets elected. The essay that follows was sent in by a reader in Missouri. So here we go. So we're going to read Anne Landers as a mail, in a sense. Basically.

Okay. We're not going to read the whole thing because it's too long, but this is most of it. Okay, yeah. How important is one vote? In 1645, one vote gave Oliver Cromwell control of England. In 1649, one vote caused Charles the first of England to be executed. Oh, my God. Okay.

In 1776, one vote gave America the English language instead of German. Really? We'd be speaking German right now, the two of us. Good. One vote brought Texas into the Union. One vote saved President Andrew Johnson from impeachment. Oh, I heard of that one. One vote changed France from a monarchy to a republic.

One vote gave Rutherford B. Hayes the president. residency. Impressive. Now it gets a little darker. Not exactly sunshining right here. In 1923, one vote gave Hitler leadership of the Nazi party. Oh. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Now, this is a pretty incredible list. And in each case, had the vote been missing, the result would be different. Right. History would be different. I think it's a wonderful place to begin. Anyone who's thinking of not voting should consider this list with care. With meticulous care. And once they go out and they research and they research and they're

they read their history, they will find that this list is totally bogus. Totally bogus? Exaggerated, mischaracterized, fraudulent. Well, can we go back over them? Go back over them. All right. In 1645, one vote gave Cromwell control of England. I emailed several disorienters. One of them wrote to me that this was, quote, absurd. There was a vote in 1645.

Cromwell was made Lieutenant General of the cavalry, but no one knows the margin of that vote. Okay, you're the next one. That one vote caused Charles the first to be executed. According to another historian, complete nonsense. Over two. What's the next one? One vote gave America the English language instead of German. I'd never heard of that.

There was a vote to translate the laws and then they decided, yeah, no, maybe it's better not to do that. One vote brought Texas into the union. In the Senate, the vote was 27 to 25. Two votes. Not one vote, two votes. And that wasn't even the decisive vote. The next one?

One vote saved President Andrew Johnson from impeachment. Actually, I thought that was true. The guy who made that vote was bribed. The vote, he was bought. That vote was bought. Right. Moving on then. Right.

One vote changed France from a monarchy to a republic. Impressive. But you conveniently omit the fact that there were three revolutions in the prior 80 years. One vote gave Rutherford Hayes the presidency. So this is true. I mean, it was a disputed election, so it went to this special committee, and he did win there by one vote, but it was more like politicking than actually like voting. And last, one vote gave Adolf Hitler leadership of the Nazi party. In that case, the vote was actually 553-2-1.

So he got this exactly wrong. Exactly wrong. And so that concludes our lesson in journalism today. when receiving letters from total strangers do not always assume that they know what they're writing about. But it's like a bit, it's more than just a journalistic correction. It's like this instantiation of everything you believe about the society that you live in, that somehow your voice, however little, it's important and it's valued. And for this all to be wrong, it's sort of devastating.

You know, and then you go on to... This does not make me feel. or even a second. That your vote is not valuable. That's right. I don't know. It makes me want to put my money where my mouth is, and it's like, fine. You think one vote matters.

Prove it. Make your own fact-checked list where you can prove that this is not an idealistic pipe dream. This is a real thing. So are you about to present us with absolutely solid stories where one vote matters? If Anne Landers did her homework, these are the stories that you. she would bring you. And they are going to, they are going to inspire you if I have anything to say about it. Okay.

So are you, are you ready? I am ready. All right, let's go. All right, I got a lot planned here for the next few minutes. Okay. We are going to go to shiny, heinie ranch. To what? To shiny, heinary ranch.

I'm also going to take you back in time to a drunken, scandalous hotel lobby. But before we do any of that, I'm going to take you back to. Yeah, good. We are back, ready to take the onslaught. For an amazing story I heard from our friendly election commissioner, S.Y. Kureishi. You just tell it as it unfolded from your perspective. Well, the story, starting in 2008, Rajasthan state was going for its state elections. Welcome to Rajasthan. So Rajasthan is this enormous, desertist state in northwest India with almost 75 million people.

nearly two Californias. And in 2008, they were going into their elections and... There was this leader called C.P. Joshi. Dr. C.P. Joshi. Joshi was in his 50s. He was a member of the Rajasthani Congress, representing the Congress Party, which is a little confusing, I know. But anyway, over the past 28 years, he had been climbing the political ladder.

And in 2008... He was the state president of the Congress Party, and general perception was that the Congress Congress party wins the election. He will be the next chief minister. Which is kind of like the governor. So if he wins, it's like he'll be the governor of 75 million people. What was your role with respect to that particular election?

Well, you know, there is a three-member election commission. I was one of the three election commissioners. And so the day of the election arrives. CP Joshi. When the votes were being counted, we lost by one vote. P. Joshi has lost, though of course it must be said, strangely, by just one vote. Which may not be as big a surprise given the title of the episode, but here's what is surprising. The final tally for the top two finishers was 62,216 to 62,215.

I mean, that's just the, can that be? So that's what he asked, right? Like Joshi, the incumbent, is like, no, no, no. So he requested to recount the postal ballots. Like the mail-in ballots. And there were about 500-odd postal ballots. In 15 minutes, recounting was done, and the result was still the same. Still lost by one vote.

That is weird. So then he called up a second time, requesting for retabulating the totals from the machine. Meaning recounting all the electronic votes. So you ask us to tabulate again. And after going through these thousands of ballots, adding them all by hand again. Still the same result. And then after that we declared the results. He lost his chief ministerage because he lost by one more.

Now, that is brutal. That is brutal to lose by one. But it actually gets even more brutal and personal because people started talking about his wife. People hear that his wife had gone to a temple. Rumors went, on the day of the election, his wife had gone to a temple to pray for him. And because she was praying at this temple,

she didn't make it to the polling station and she didn't vote. That's the difference. That's the difference. He looks at his wife. He can look at his wife and say, you didn't vote, I didn't win. One causes the other.

So from there, you know, I developed this moral from the entire story that every single vote matters. Secondly, you can't take even your family for granted. And thirdly, on the day of the poll, the most important temple is the polling station. The most important temple is the polling station. But... No, no, it's not correct. This is CP Joshi...

I am the person who lost my one vote. I figured I should call him just to check. It was not because of absence of anybody from my family. My mother, my wife, my son, everyone voted for. Do you mind if I talk to your wife a little bit? No, she's sitting with me. Can I give the telephone to her? Yeah, please give the telephone to her. That would be great. Okay, okay.

Hello? Hello, Dr. Joshi. You mind introducing yourself for me? I'm Dr. Hamletta Joshi. And you definitely voted for and supported your husband. Definitely. I can't believe the media also, I mean, totally wrong. What happened in morning?

According to the Joshis, all this gossip started because on the morning of the election, Dr. Joshi and his son went to vote. There was a photo up. Everyone took pictures. And that photo was flashed in the TV. In that photo, my wife was not there. My wife came from Jepur.

And later in the day, did go to the polls. I with my in-laws, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law, we all casted war. But just no one took a picture. So because the picture of him and his son was on the news, everyone thought, oh, it's because his wife didn't vote. I see. And Ann Landers was probably covering it and simply announced,

well, the wife didn't vote. Right. But, and this is where things get even stranger. There was actually another wife involved. You know, that part of the story, is much too dramatic. So, and normally I don't even tell that part of the story. So here's what happened.

My supporters said, night, we have to go petition. Shortly after the election, some of Joshi's supporters started coming to him and saying, People have cast said more vote and all these things. We think there's been voter fraud. Yeah. And pretty quick, in videography, it was identified.

They had proof that one particular woman had voted twice. How do you vote twice? Well, she voted at two different polling stations, once under her married name and once under her maiden. It is very, very rare, what may happen? And here's the kicker. It was the wife of this candidate who defeated me to voted twice. Hold on.

Other candidates' wife had voted twice. It was the wife of the man who won the election. And so... I went for the election petition in high court and then Supreme Court. And they ruled it was true. She did fraudulently vote. But then what? Because after all this...

Recounting the vote came out equal. Then it's a... die. So what are they going to do then? What do you do? Well, so what happened was that this investigation actually took four years for them to figure all of this stuff out. And the term that they were being elected for is a five-year term. So then what happened? Did they let him serve out his term? Or did they continue? He continued as he did. Let it be like this. That's all because his term is just expiring.

If it was me, I think I would be so bitter. Yeah. But you don't sound very bitter. First time, it's a blessing in disguise. He says being defeated by his opponent, who, by the way, we reached out to, but he was sick. He was not able to talk to us. That being beaten by that guy, Joshi sees it as a sort of blessing in disguise, oddly enough, because six months after his loss, there was a special election for not the state level in Rajasthan,

but the federal, you know, the Indian level. So he ran for this election, and not only did he win, but eventually he, He got tapped to be minister of railways, which in India, that's a big deal. Yeah. Destiny has decided that I should lose by one vote and I should come in government of India. I have not lost by one vote. I have not been government of India. I would not have been minister.

Do you take a lesson from this? What does it mean? How do you make sense of it? I can only say that every vote is important. That message goes up of my election and losing by one vote. Very good. But one thing, like, you know, I felt. So after we hung up the phone, our reporter and fixer, Nalajanabalek, who is over on the other side with the Joshis, she just kept asking them questions.

In this case, two women were much in focus. Yeah, yeah, yeah, correct. But I'm correct. I did my bash positively, but she did negative. This is the difference. She casted that was wrong practice. That was wrong practice. I believe in destiny.

So to that extent, I give credit to him and two wives also. You can understand. You did malpractice. That was malpractice. Honestly, I feel like I'm a little bit on her side. I mean, this was a vote matters story, but it was a fraudulent vote. I wasn't expecting for you to champion the cause of one vote by giving me a stolen vote. I'll be honest.

It took me a little bit by surprise too. But the next one vote story, I promise you it is entirely legal. It better be totally legal. And it's going to take place stateside deep in the heart of... Deep in the eye. Ba-bam, bam, bam, bam. Oh, wait. Before you break into song, we have to go to break.

Oh, okay. Hey, this is Marta calling from Toronto, Ontario. Radio Lab is supported in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, enhancing public understanding of science and technology in the modern world. More information about Sloan at www.sloan.org. All right, we are back. I'm Robert Krollwitch. This is Radio Lab,

and today our producer Latif Nasser is taking us on his tour de force of great moments when one... One vote mattered. Yes. And as promised, the next story, certified to be fraud-free, takes place in Texas. Seems so these are...

This is the property up on the right. At a cattle ranch. Tiny Hiney. Called Shiny Hiney. You can see the other residents. 200 head of cattle. Let's see if we can take a look. And the guy you just heard is Alan Lessel Young.

And I'm the Emperor of Shiny Hine. Emperor of Shiny Hainey. Okay, to explain. I should back up a little bit. In 2009, Alan had just finished up grad school. He was living in Dallas with his first. parents. Yep. Yep. Then one day I was actually on my way back from a ski trip and I get a call from a man I know. You know, he said he was looking for somebody that needed a change in their housing situation and had an

opportunity to discuss. And so I called him back. And he said, look, I've got this thousand acre ranch up north of Dallas that I'm trying to develop. Nothing up there right now, just cows and fields, but I need someone to live up there for a while in a mobile home trailer. And if you do it, I'll make it worth your while. So for $150 a month, I got a three-bedroom trailer. I'm with a kitchen and a living room and a bedroom and an office and all that. He got his utilities paid for, free internet. And put in that satellite dish so I could get high-speed internet.

And he's like, yeah, I'll do it. Handshake deal. And the next thing I know, you know, he's ordering a trailer and I'm changing my residence. Can you describe what it looks like out here? We got fields as far as the eye can see. We actually had Alan give reporter Stephanie Quo a quick tour of the ranch. And I'd check out for those cow patties. Honestly, it was refreshing.

I used to do campfires. When it gets hot, I would go for a dip in the watering hole. If I didn't want to see another human being, I could go days or weeks without seeing another human being. It's probably in the biggest piece of shade we got. So if he's getting all these goodies, what's his buddy the developer getting in return? Well, it basically required me living up here as the only legal resident. In other words, the only eligible voter. Voting for... What's he going to vote for?

So here's the deal. Alan's buddy and his crew, they want to put houses on this land. But first, they have to put in a bunch of utilities. you know, streets and sewers. All things that normally taxpayers would pay for. Of course, these guys are private businessmen, not a government that can levy taxes. But according to Texas law,

property owners and residents can get together, hold an election, and decide to create a special district, like a tiny little government that can levy a tax, which would be ideal for these developers because then they could just get a loan to build the streets and stuff and then pay the loan back

through that tax. Problem is, there aren't any residents on this land. There's no one to vote this whole deal into existence in the first place. And that is where Alan comes in. Once he's living on this land, he can be the voter to levy the tax to get the loan to build the roads, to bring the people who eventually live here, and pay the tax. So they told him, you can live up here cheap with all the utilities and internet paid for, you just have to vote in this election. Yeah, they didn't push me in any one direction, but it was clear if one, if there's one issue on the ballot, there's a reason that one issue is on the ballot. And a woman named Angela comes and she brings me my voting booth. Which is basically a little table. It's like a folding table.

Along with an electronic voting machine and a whole list of rules. You have to open polls at 7 a.m. You have to close. You have to be the election judge. You have to be the election judge. to sign this, things like that. Does that mean that this guy's going to not only be the voter in the election, but he's going to run the election? He's going to vote, manage his own vote? Yeah, exactly. Had to be aware of the perimeter because if somebody had come up with a political poster or something and tried to put that up within 100 feet of the polling location, I would have had to ask them to stop. Did you have to put up one of those cardboard, like those secret, so it's secret so no one can see what you're voting?

Oh yeah, of course. I wouldn't want my kitty cats to know how I voted on that election. Okay. Wait, what were your cat's names? Sorry, now I'm just curious. I just need to know. Yeah, no, Raina and Lucius. That's a valid question because they were, I was the election judge, but they were my polling assistants. They even got name tags. You made name tags for that? Yeah.

So, day of the election, with the sun rising over the plains of Texas. set up my music outside. What kind of music were you playing? I play house music. So we crank the beats, set up his voting booth. Extend the legs, plug it in, it boots up. Hello, thank you for choosing. Hello, you know, whatever.

And I think it was like pre-programmed with the ballot. There he is. He's in the middle of nowhere. He's got a trailer. He's got some dance music. He's got these two cats with name tags. He's got this voting machine. It's a dance party.

I literally sat here from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Then at some point he sort of makes the decision to vote. What does the ballot look like? Can you remember? It was not as simple as yes or no. I want to say there were like three or four parts to it. Here in front of me, I actually have the ballot.

Okay. Is there a proposition on it? Yes. So there is several propositions. One literally just says district. Four, there's a box against it. There's a box. Shall we do this?

Exactly. And then after that, there's a section where he votes in the board of directors. So there are, so he has to vote for five. It's like a choose five of the below. And you have one, two, three, four. There are only five candidates for the- So he has to choose five people and there's a list in front of him of five people. Yeah.

And then this little government that I've just created one proposition ago will be able to borrow money and the people who live here afterwards. We'll have to pay it back. So Alan voted yes for everything. Yep. Did it say the amount of money or did it say what it was for or was it just like all? No, no, there was a dollar amount. And if I remember correctly, I want to say it was $340 million, $240.

It was something like that. $371,27,270,000. My God. Which means that the future residents of this property are on the hook for nearly $400 million. Is this a common practice at this point? There are right now at the moment. I just got this email from the Texas government. There are 1,237 of these types of utility districts across Texas right now.

They cover 2.9 million acres. So that's basically two Delaware's. And according to the Houston Chronicle, you've got two million Texans right now living in these kinds of utility districts. And how much money has been raised to make those governments? Ballpark figure, again, from the Houston Chronicle. Okay.

For the outstanding debt of these types of utilities districts, $60 billion. $60 billion. $60 billion. This feels wrong. to me. Like, these taxes were created by individuals who squatted on property for a while and mostly left, didn't have to pay the taxes. It just feels a little unfair to me anyway, for the people who will live there one day, will pay the taxes and never got to vote. If somebody, you know, lives in their $300,000 house and every year they have to pay $3,000 in tax that they

wouldn't have if I had not voted the way that I did, would they resent that, maybe? But people complain about paying their taxes. And yet they get in the car and they drive on the road that's supported by federal tax dollars. My constituents are livid. They're furious. So this is Republican state senator Jane Nelson. And she argued that these situations just put way too much power in the hands of a single voter. And she brought to committee a bill that would fix the problem. What I did is require a minimum of 40 voters to establish. Basically, she said these elections should require no fewer than 40 voters.

Which would help ensure that actual residents of the community will have a voice in these elections. Okay. Let the fun begin. I mean, let the testimony begin. But at least for now, the state legislators in Texas have decided that all you need to pass attacks of this kind is one vote. That's the story.

That's the story. We were coming to celebrate the idea that one vote matters in a glorious wave the flag sort of way. Not in a fraud in India and taxation without representation way. I wanted. You wanted some yay. Glory or something. Okay, I have one more. I have one final story.

Oh, good. And why don't you come with me? Why don't you do this? I will come with you to be sure that you make me happy. Yes. Come with me. Let's figure it out. Now, are y'all in New York?

Yeah. I'm going to put on my most southern accent now. I promise I'm... You don't have to pander to us. I thought that was pretty southern. Yes. I'm going to put on my most southern accent here. All right.

So this is Carol Busey. And I'm Robert. So we're Lettiff Robert and Tracy. Okay. Hi. Hi. That, by the way, is our reporter and producer. producer Tracy Hunt.

It's a three-on-one. Well, you know, we southern girls, we can handle anything. Carol is a professor of history at the Volunteer State Community College in Tennessee near Nashville. And you all do understand that Nashville is now the it city. Seems to be. But for our story, there was a moment in Nashville's history where it was not just the it city. It was the last stand in a long and vicious struggle. for women to get the right to vote.

It was the summer of 1920. Summer of 1920. That's an oral history recording of a 101-year-old woman named Abby Crawford-Milton, who in that very hot summer of 1920 descended upon Nashville with hundreds and hundreds of other suffragists like herself, anti-suffragists, lawyers, politicians, business people.

They all came to Nashville for this fierce legislative battle. The fierce legislative battle. stated battle that ever lost a wage on this consumm. Okay. Now, let me stop here and take us one step back. Okay. And we're also going to bring in historian Jill Lepore. A member professor of history at Harvard.

Where do you want to start? Okay, so when the United States? She told us that at the end of the Civil War, around 1865, as Congress was considering this new amendment to give former slaves the right to vote, you had this small band of women who were wishing, hoping, fighting to be included. included in this new amendment. Women expect that the 14th Amendment is going to lift any discrimination within the Constitution on the basis of race, color, or sex.

And why would they think that? Since nobody was saying, let's do this for the women at Gettysburg or at Antietam or... Well, they had been the stalwart allies of abolitionists. And women are really important to the founding of the Republican Party. And so when they say to then, oh, yeah, okay, you guys are going to do this amendment. Obviously, you're not going to forget us, right? Like, we're going to write this political wrong. Let's do it.

Like, let's just do it. Let's get this done. So this proposed amendment is being talked about in Congress. It's being perfected. It's being tweaked. And it's about to come to a vote. When almost at the last minute, the word mail is put in there. Amending the amendment so that only men can vote.

And it's the first introduction of the word male into the Constitution. So not only does the 14th Amendment fail to guarantee women their citizenship and the rights that come and privileges to come with citizenship. It specifically excludes them. Oh, what a betrayal. That's right. We're starting back at square one. At that point, some women are like,

God damn it, like, all right, we're just going to go vote. And so, for instance, a woman named Virginia Minor actually tries to vote. They won't let her. Goes to the Supreme Court. I guess you won't be surprised to hear. Are you on the edgy seats? What are the Supreme Court? Oh, no.

What are they going to do? I can't wait to know. It's a clipping. The Supreme Court says, oh, ladies. Oh, it's so cute that you thought you were included in the Constitution. No, no, no, no, no. We love you, but no. And then in 1878, Susan B. Anthony proposed another amendment to Congress for the right to vote.

People laughed about it and then put it aside. And for the next almost 40 years? There was no movement at all on this amendment. Until June 4, 1919. Just after World War I, after centuries of suffering, suffrage. Both houses of Congress finally. passed the 19th Amendment to give women the right to vote. The amendment came after months of women protesting outside the White House and years of working

jobs that before the war had only ever belonged to men. But of course, it also came with a constitutional catch. It had to go to the states to be ratified. Which just means that each state had to vote to approve it. Three-fourths of the state legislatures have to ratify the amendment. And how many states would that be? Well, 36 in this particular instance had to vote for it. Right off the bat, they got Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, and then after that it's just like dominoes.

You get state after state after state. But then we got to 35 states, and it stopped. It just got stuck at 35 states. Now, knowing that the suffragists were only one vote shy, the anti-suffragists beefed up their campaign, which made it just harder and harder to get that final state. It was looking grim. Until there was one state, just one state, that seemed like it might be teetering. And so August of 1920, Nashville, Tennessee, legislators from all over the state started arriving at Union Station.

They're just immediately greeted by both pro and anti-suffragist. Trying to pin either a yellow or a red rose on their lapel. so everybody across town would know which side they stood on. That was Tom Vicksstrom. He's the unofficial historian of the very place these legislators were headed. The most fashionable place in town. The Hermitage Hotel. Picture of the lobby during the month of August,

swarming with people, both pro and anti-suffrage. Women cooling themselves with palm leaf fans. And, of course, no air conditioning. Men smoking cigars. Yes, a lot of smoking politicians. And on the second floor mezzan. you have the headquarters of the anti-suffragists, and it's actually worth noting that a lot of the anti-suffragists were women.

Campaining actively against the right to vote. And then on the third floor, Suite 309, you have Carrie Chapman-Cat, the leader of the pro-suffrage side. She had no children and her husband had died. She had devoted all of her energies towards this one goal of getting women the right to vote. So she's the big Washington, the big foot from Washington. She is. is really much like a general.

Both groups are there because this hotel is just a few blocks away from the state house, and they are trying to convince as many Tennessee legislators as they possibly can to come over to their side. There was all kind of hijinks and, you name it, eavesdropping. The antis would send the legislators fake telegrams. Say, come home your wife is died. Or fake phone call messages. Come home, your child is at the point of death. So the suffragists are running around trying to stop these legislators.

from leaving town. Meanwhile, there's a room back at the hotel called the Jack Daniels room. Where there was some Jack Daniels being dispensed by the anti-suffrage people. And supposedly pro-suffrage legislators could be heard through the hotel walls singing anti-suffrage songs. Tennessee is supposed to be dry, and yet the antis are flagrantly violating prohibition by having these events in which the liquor floges. quite well. All the members that they could get drunk, they took our votes away from us. The closer and closer they got to the final day of voting, it became apparent that...

People who had come to town saying they were in favor of ratifying this amendment... Who had been wearing yellow roses... ...started wearing red roses. And on the morning of the final vote, there had been so many red roses to yellow roses to yellow roses, to Red Roses flip-flopping, flopping, floppity flipping around, that by this point, no one had any idea what was going to happen. That's exactly right. Let me just stop you here for a second. Sure.

Is it now clear to everybody that if the legislature of Tennessee passes this, that it will become part of the U.S. Constitution? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. You know, you didn't have any cushion states that you could go to, you know, Nevada next. There were no cushions. It's now or it's going to be a long time. And finally, it's going to happen one way or another on August the 18th. So the morning of the vote, the hotel starts emptying out.

Everyone heads over to the state capital. But Mrs. Kat? Because she was going to be looked at as an outside agitator. She decided to stay behind. In the state capital in the House chamber. It's hot and humid. And the room is packed. The 96 legislators are settling at their desks and above them in the gallery around the top of the house chamber.

Stand the suffragists. They are there along with the anti-suffragists and you can be assured that both sides have their little pads and are counting the votes. And as they look at the roses, there are 48 yellow roses and 48 red roses. Oh, man. And are these roses reliable? I mean, can you... Well, supposedly. If you're wearing a red rose, you're going to vote against it.

So before the voting even begins, they can see that... We've lost. Yeah, because you have to have a majority. Yeah. And the Speaker of the House, he had initially supported suffrage, but he's really on the side of the antis by this time. And before they really start the vote, he actually steps down on the floor.

to give a speech against ratification of the amendment. So, you know, there's another letdown, you know, it's lost, we've lost, we've lost. And two blocks away in Sweet 309 of the Hermitage Hotel sits... Carrie Chapman Cat, she was very nervous about what was going to happen. So what's she going to do? She said, there is only one thing left to do. We can pray. So they start the roll call. And as these names are called, one by one, these men stand up and voice their vote.

If they are wearing a yellow rose, they say aye for women's suffrage. If they're wearing a red rose, they say nay. And among these legislators sits a young man. Harry T. Byrne, a Republican legislator. from Nyota, Tennessee. At 24 years old, he's the youngest legislator in the house. Small man, little glasses. With a serious face, the air is tense and still.

Until... The young man stands from his desk, a red rose in his lapel. But in his pocket... He had a letter from his mother over there in Nyota. Dear son, we've had nothing but rain since you left. Her name was Feb Byrne. Uncle Bill and Mr. Bushnell came over this PM, stayed about an hour.

They were in the Ford. We haven't had that car out since you left. And if this rainy weather doesn't let up, I fear we'll all have to stay at home the rest of the sun. And really, it's just this ordinary letter. You'll tire of what I'm writing, but I haven't had anything else about. From a mom to her son. Mertie was real sick yesterday, but was better this morning. She's been complaining all summer.

But tucked into all of those mundane details about life in Nyota, there was this little motherly dig, a prodding. I've been watching to see how you stood, but haven't seen anything yet. You know, son, I've been reading about the suffrage fight in the papers, and I really hadn't seen your name anywhere. And then she says, Don't forget to be a good boy and help Miss Thomas Cap. Vote for suffrage, and don't keep them in doubt.

With lots of love, Mama. Harry T. Byrne is wearing a red rose. And his vote? He votes for women to have the right to vote. So... If they're in the balcony, there's just a moment of silence. What's going on here? What's going on? You can imagine this. You can imagine this.

And then it dawns on you. Hey, Harry's changed his vote. It's not going to be 48 to 48. it's going to be 49 to 47. The suffragists, you can imagine, are crying. The antis are furious. You can imagine the total chaos here in this situation. But there must be an awful lot of attention paid to Harry, right?

Well, the legend is that the antis start chasing Harry through the house chamber. Harry is completely undone. Oh, my gosh, what have I just done? So he jumps out a window. Now, he's not jumping out a five-story window, but he gets out of the building and shimmies down the ledge to the State Library, which is in the same building, where he gets in the window there and Mrs. Moore,

the librarian, Mary Daniel Moore, hides him in the stacks until the storm blows over. Now, that's the legend. Wow. Did Harry really climb out of that window? Did any shimmying happen? Yeah. But we don't know how exaggerated that part of the story.

The shouts from the hill carried all the way back to the Hermitage Hotel. Mrs. Kat could hear them from her window. She knew they'd won. It was, in fact, passed. The certificate of ratification was sent to Washington, D.C., and received by the Secretary of State. The final tally was actually 50 to 46. After Harry changed his vote, one other legislator switched sides, but it was clearly because Harry had changed first.

That's right. So that vote was the – that vote became the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Well, yes, in a manner of speaking, yes. After the vote, Mrs. Kat sent Feb Byrne a telegram. You are blessed with a brave and honest son. Whatever the enemies of justice and decency may do now to show their vengeance upon him, he is bound to have a great future. You will ever be proud of him.

Carrie E. Chapman Cat. Well, his political career ended rather short. But, you know, he took his mother's advice, and he did get his name in the paper, didn't he? When you think about it, the difference between men's. Men and women as voters has gotten decisive. Decisive. Yeah. You know what?

This has made me happy. Thank you 19th Amendment. Thank you, Latif, for producing this and coming up with all these stories. Yes. And checking them. And thank you, listener, for voting, which we're going to already thank you for it because we know that you're going to do. Yeah. Go out and vote.

Whatever you choose, just go out and vote because this is... Because it matters. Yes, because it matters. My grandmother went to the Methodist Church in November of 1920 with her four-year-old daughter at her side and voted because of something that took place right here in Nashville, Tennessee. I will never forget when I went to pick my mother up the last time she voted. She was sitting in the lobby of the retirement center where she lived. patiently waiting for me to come and pick her up with her American flag pin in her lapel,

she was proud to be going to vote. Thanks to Peggy Hinkle Wolf at the Denton Record Chronicle in Texas, and thanks to Professor Rachel Bousen at Washburn University, thanks also to Lynn Randall and Adrian Heath and Professor Mildred Warner at Cornell University, thanks to Wayne Schulmister and to Debbie Daughtry, who lent us their Southern accents. Thanks to Andrea Morrow and the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality, as well as the Tennessee State Library and Archives, the Hermitage Hotel, the Calvin-McClung Historical Collection

at the Knox County Public Library, and last but not least, thanks to the Plymouth Fife and Drum Corps, including and especially Director Jim Preetam, whose last name rhymes with Freedom. Start of message. Hi, this is Jill Lepore. This is Carol Busey in Nashville, Tennessee. I serve as the Davidson County historian, am a professor of history at Volunteer State Community College.

Hi, this is Alan Leslieon, Emperor of Shiny Honey. Radio Lab is produced by Dad Emerald. Dylan Keefe is our director of sound design. Soren Wilburne is our senior editor. Jamie York is our senior producer. Our staff includes Simon Adler. Brenna Farrell. David Gable.

Matt Kielty. Robert Crowicz. Andy McEwen. Lachief Nassar. Melissa O'Donnell. Ryan Wack. And Molly Webster. With help from Tracy Hunt.

Hagar Fatali. Libby Wang. Katie Ferguson. Alexander Lee Young, W. Harry Fortuna and Percia Verl. Our fact checkers are Eva Dasher and Michelle Harris. End of message.