Iowa Secretary Of State Recognizes Fremont-Mills Seniors For Voter Registration
Fremont-Mills received the Carrie Chapman Catt award after all 34 members of the senior class registered to vote.
Iowa Secretary Of State Paul Pate and Fremont County Auditor Dee Owen discuss the importance of voting with members of the Fremont-Mills High School senior class.
TABOR - The senior class at Fremont-Mills High School got a special visit from Iowa Secretary Of State Paul Pate Friday morning.
Pate came to Tabor to present the students with the Carrie Chapman Catt Award in recognition of the school’s voter registration numbers. All 34 members of the Fremont-Mills senior class have registered to vote in the upcoming 2024 elections.
“This is a very significant and prestigious award. This will be the second time your school is receiving this award, which is special,” Pate told the students. “If you look at how many high schools there are in the state of Iowa – we’re talking hundreds of high schools – we recognize just about 40 for this achievement, which I think is very significant.
“You’re up against the largest high schools as well as the smallest, so it’s an equal opportunity competition. The goal and pride is a very worthy one.”
The award is named after Carrie Chapman Catt, a leader in the women’s suffrage movement of the early 20th Century, that led to the 19thh Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that gave women the right to vote in 1920. She founded the League of Women Voters in 1920 and the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in 1904, which was later named International Alliance of Women. A Wisconsin native, her family moved to Charles City, Iowa when she was a child. She attended Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) and was the only female in her graduating class of 1880.
“She took it upon herself in a time in our history, for not one year, but 20 years in her life, she dedicated herself, campaigning and going across not only the state of Iowa, but across the entire United States at a time when women were not encouraged to be outside of the home,” Pate told the students. “She went out and her message was she wanted to give women the right to vote. It’s kind of alarming when you think about it. We were a country for over 100 years and half of our country didn’t get to vote.”
Pate was accompanied to Tabor by Fremont County Auditor Dee Owen, State Rep. David Sieck and staffers of Iowa’s federal elected officials.