Kentucky Election Day Trivia

I hope everyone has the chance to get to the polls today to ensure that their voices are heard! In honor of today's Primary Elections, I thought we'd take a look at some Bluegrass State election trivia.

1. Under 1824, any Kentuckian who was found to have voted twice was assessed a $10 fine. 

Hatfield-McCoy Election Fight sign, Pike County.

2. In 1838, Kentucky became the first state to give women the right to vote in School Board elections. 

Josephine Henry, the first woman to campaign for a statewide office in Kentucky

3. After a highly contested election, Kentucky's governor, William Goebel, was fatally shot as he was taking the Oath of Office on January 30, 1900.

Governor William Goebel served a tragically brief term of office.

4. Kentucky lowered its voting age requirement from 20 to 18 in 1955, nearly twenty years before the right was afforded by the Twenty-Sixth Amendment.

Campaign poster for Kentucky's most famous candidate.

5. In 1983, Kentuckians elected Martha Layne Collins, the seventh woman to be governor of a U.S. State. 

Kentucky's fifty-sixth Governor, Martha Layne Collins

Now get out and vote, y'all!

Raising Ms. President Louisville Event

Raising Ms. President, the documentary by Kentucky native Kiley Lane Parker, is an inspiration to all of us here at HerKentucky. For me, it stirred up long-forgotten dreams of serving as a legislator or a lobbyist. For Sarah Stewart Holland, it was a call to action to begin her political candidacy. 

More important than our own reactions to Ms. Parker's film, however, is the message of getting girls involved in the political process. Whether or not they ultimately run for office, it's such an important message for young women to know that they can get involved. 

If you'll be in the Louisville area tomorrow night, I encourage you to attend the viewing of Raising Ms. President at the Brown Theatre. Following the film, Ms. Parker will lead a roundtable discussion, and you can learn more about the ways that Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana and Louisville Girls Leadership are preparing the young women of our communities to be the leaders of the next generation!

If you go:

Where: Brown Theatre, 315 W Broadway 
When: Tuesday, February 25, 2014 @ 7:00 PM
Price: All ages $15.00 || Student tickets $6.00 (not available online)

Running Time: Approximately 2 hours

Raising Ms. President

Once upon a time, I dreamed of doing something big. Big. BIG.

As a kid, I never missed School House Rock and my favorites were always the grammar and civics ditties. As a political science undergraduate, I figured I'd wind up in a professional setting that mixed my love for writing and politics with my growing interest in the law. 

Maybe I'd start out in a government agency. Maybe I'd work as a lobbyist or an analyst. Maybe even...

But, you know, it never happened. Life got in the way. I listened to the word "No" way too many times. I heard it from myself and those around me. I let my disillusionment about the state of partisan politics override the desire to help effectuate change. At times, I shortchanged my own goals. I moved in different professional directions. And that was that.

Most of the time, I'm perfectly fine with the choices I've made. But, now and again, I wonder how it would have been if I'd ignored those voices. I wonder how it would have been if I'd had more faith in my dreams, and if I'd worked harder to make them a reality. It's one of those games you can't stop yourself from playing.

The advice I wish I'd had then? "Don't listen. Do."Kiley Lane Parker, a Louisville-based filmmaker, recently filmed a documentary called Raising Ms. President which addresses the reasons why more United States women aren't involved in the political arena. It's a non-partisan look at the need for more female voices in American politics.

I'm really looking forward to seeing this film. I'm at once fascinated and frustrated by the idea that girls and women don't aspire to political roles because they consider themselves under-qualified or are confused by the process. In an era in which American women are more likely than men to hold both undergraduate and graduate degrees (source: The Women in America report, whitehouse.gov), this mode of thinking is simply incomprehensible. One of the film's key ideas is that, from a neurological perspective, women and men are "hard-wired" for ambition on a very similar level -- women's attitudes on their own role in politics often arise from societal and cultural influences. Too often, girls listen to the voices. They internalize the "nos."

It is so important that there are voices out there to counterbalance the "nos." Ms. Parker intends to use Raising Ms. President to do just that. The film is designed for television, but there are a few steps that must be undertaken before it ultimately arrives there.

Raising Ms. President is in its final stages of completion. The work is done, and now Ms. Parker needs to undertake the process of editing, polishing, and securing footage rights. This is, apparently, one of the most expensive parts of making a film. The Raising Ms. President project also hopes to produce educational materials to help the film become a teaching tool for schools and community organizations. Of course, that takes money. And that is where we all can help.

Raising Ms. President has undertaken a Kickstarter campaign to help fund these final processes. For as little as $15, you can see your name in the credits of the film. There are donation levels that lead to all sorts of schwag levels. But, most importantly, there is the chance to be the voice of "yes."  Please consider contributing today.

To learn more more about raising Ms. President, visit the film's website or Facebook page. To contribute, visit the Kickstarter page.