Voting in the Canal Zone
Today is Election Day and a chance to look back at the history of voting in the Canal Zone. Printed in the November 1967 issue of the Panama Canal Review, the caption of this photograph reads:
“Campaigning was spirited at the Culebra Post Office in 1912 during mock elections. Because U.S.-citizen residents of the Canal Zone could not vote in national elections at that time, mock elections were held a few weeks before elections in the United States as ‘manifestations of political desire for expression,’ according to the ‘Canal Record.’ The tickets usually bore nominations for national and municipal offices and at least one village included on its ticket a nomination for the position of ‘town grouch.’”
What do you know about the history of voting in the Canal Zone? When were U.S. citizens in the Canal Zone able to vote in national elections and what was the process for doing so? If you voted in the Canal Zone, where did you vote and what do you remember about the experience?
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3 Comments
Rushelle K Mason
In Canal Zone 49 to 53. I remember that knives and screw drivers were not sold several weeks before elections in Panama City. Machine gun bunkers were set up along the Canal Zone and Panama City boundaries. We could not go into Panama City until several days after the national elections.
Bob Karrer
I think you are referring to Panama National Elections. I well recall the one in 1967 or 1968 i think it was as I was at Ft Gulick… the Arnulfo Arias election which resulted shortly therefter in the coup by the GN on Once de Octubre. Bob karrer (reident 197-70, 72-76 & 79-82.)
Mickey Fitzgerald
I see that my grandfather Gerald D Bliss is the candidate. Wished I’d asked more questions about our family history. Did Zonians eventually get to vote in US elections?