**📣 Tyranny Tuesday • October 6, 2026 • Indivisible Northern Nevada**
*✊ Every American who votes today owes that right to someone who fought for it.*
📜 The original Constitution did not guarantee anyone the right to vote. In 1789, most states allowed only white men who owned property or paid taxes to cast a ballot, which by common estimates was about **6% of the population**. Every expansion since then was won by ordinary people who marched, petitioned, went to jail, and refused to go home. 💪
⏳ How the Vote Was Won
🏛️ 1789: The Founding.** States set the rules, and voting is mostly limited to white male property owners.
🏠 1820s–1850s: Property tests fall.** Working men demand a voice. In Rhode Island, Thomas Dorr’s “People’s Convention” forces a broader state constitution, and Dorr is jailed for treason for his trouble. ⛓️
⚖️ 1870: 15th Amendment.** The vote cannot be denied “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” About 180,000 Black Union soldiers and Frederick Douglass led the fight. Jim Crow laws soon gutted it in practice for nearly a century.
👩 1920: 19th Amendment.** Women win the vote after a 72-year campaign. It took Susan B. Anthony’s arrest, Alice Paul’s 1913 march, Ida B. Wells, and the Silent Sentinels who picketed the White House. 🏔️ Nevada’s Anne Martin won suffrage here in 1914. The amendment was ratified by one vote, cast by 24-year-old Harry Burn after a letter from his mother. ✉️
✊🏾 1964: 24th Amendment.** Poll taxes are banned in federal elections. Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, Freedom Summer volunteers, and John Lewis at Selma paved the way for the Voting Rights Act. 🌉
🎖️ 1971: 26th Amendment.** The voting age is lowered to 18. “Old enough to fight, old enough to vote!” It was ratified in about 100 days, the fastest amendment in U.S. history. ⚡
🔢 Every Vote Counts
– 2016:** 77,744 votes across Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania decided the presidency. That is about 0.06% of all votes cast.
– 📊 2024:** 229,766 votes across the same three states decided it, and no candidate won a majority of the popular vote.
– 📍 Washoe County** was decided by about **2,600 votes in both elections**: Clinton won by 2,621 in 2016 and Harris won by 2,628 in 2024.
– 🏠 About 1 in 3** eligible Americans stayed home in 2024.
🤝 These numbers aren’t about which party won. They show that the people who show up decide.
🌟 You Are Part of This Story
🪧 The Silent Sentinels stood outside the White House week after week, in rain and cold. Every Tuesday, Indivisible Northern Nevada activists stand on Reno sidewalks doing the same work. **You are those people.** 💙
✅ Your 2026 Voting Checklist
– 📝 Oct. 6 is the last day to register by mail or in person.** You can still register online through Election Day, or in person during early voting and on Election Day.
– 📬 Watch your mailbox.** Return your mail ballot early, or use a drop box by 7 p.m. on Election Day.
– 🗓️ Early voting:** October 17–30 *Election Day:** Tuesday, November 3
– 🔍 Check your registration** at [nvsos.gov](https://www.nvsos.gov) or [washoecounty.gov/voters](https://www.washoecounty.gov/voters/)
✊ JOIN US
📅 Date: October 6, 2026
🕙 Time: 10:00–11:00
📍 Location: Bruce R. Thompson Courthouse and Federal Building, 400 S. Virginia St., Reno, NV, 89501