The fourteenth Democratic candidate on the ballot in Jasper County that day was the most controversial figure in the election. The issue was whether the candidate could legally hold the office of County Clerk, despite the assertion by an opposing newspaper that the candidate was “the best man on the Democratic ticket.” The problem was that the candidate was not a man at all, but a woman. The year was 1890, thirty years before women could vote. But Jasper Countians on that day made Anna White Baxter the first woman elected to public office by popular vote in Missouri.
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