Portrait of Louisa Swain. 1860. Louisa A. Swain Papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming

First Female Voter

70-year-old Louisa Swain (1801 - Janurary 25, 1880) moved to Laramie to follow her son and became the first Woman Voter to have full suffrage in the United States. On September 6, 1870, she cast her ballot and forever changed many frontiers for women. She voted in the Wyoming election  nearly one year after the Female Suffrage Law was passed. Around 1000 women living in the Wyoming territory came to the polls to cast their votes. Louisa cast her vote early in the morning in Laramie, Wyoming, where she beat the second voter by a mere 30 minutes to the poll.

About 3,296,711 women vote today. 

This is a Frank Leslie Newspaper Illustration of Women voting in Cheyenne in 1888. Library of Congress