Essay On Voting In America

Being able to cast my first vote in the 21st century is a privilege. My generation needs to accept their patriotic responsibility and vote because many reforms are needed in order to carry us into the new millennium. Voting reforms are necessary to inspire political participation for other modifications and adjustments needed in areas such as health care, education, and Social Security, all which we as young people will face in the future. Participation in elections is necessary to facilitate and enable progress, but our present day system of voting is expiring by frustrated Americans.

Voting has not always been as easy as it is today. It is interesting to examine how far America has progressed in its process of allowing different types of people to be able to vote. Voting was once aimed at a particular group of people, which were white males that owned their own property. Today, most people over the age of eighteen can vote, except for the mentally incompetent or people who have been convicted of major felonies in some states. The decline of voter participation has always been a debate in the public arena. According to McDonald and Popkin, it is “the most important, most familiar, most analyzed, and most conjectured trend in recent American political history (2001, 963)” The question is, how important is voter

Many women and African American men had long dreamed to have the right to vote. In many states, they could only vote if their state allowed them the privilege. The dedicated men and women fought for their right to vote in the Civil Rights Movement in the early and mid 1900s. Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment and the Voting Rights Act to give African Americans the rights to vote. It would have not occurred if the Civil Rights Movement had not taken place. The Nineteenth Amendment would not have occurred either if not for the Civil Rights Movement. The freedom to vote is now held by a majority because of the fight by the people involved in the Civil Rights Movement, and the African Americans and women who fought for their right to

When our country was founded, only property-owning White men were granted the right to vote. After the Civil War, when slavery was finally abolished, the Constitution’s Fifteenth Amendment prohibited “the denial of the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Only in the last century did the Nineteenth Amendment give women the right to vote. And a little over 40 years ago, the Twenty-sixth Amendment was ratified to expand the franchise by lowering the voting age from 21 to

Throughout American history, many minority groups have encountered significant barriers to the right to vote. Traditionally, specific populations concerned with protecting their power over others have maintained tight control over this privilege. In doing so, violations of basic human rights have occurred; state and federal governments established voting restrictions based on race. Fortunately, several methods were taken for overcoming these limitations that resulted in the voting practices used today. These recent legislations that government enacted have been to benefit voters. This research paper will go in depth with the main restrictions, laid out by either the states or the government, placed on different races in America, look at

Industrial Countries all over the world have seen a steady decline in voter participation; Great Britain is a great example of this. The country has witness turnout in elections falling slowly as time pass. However, the election of 2001 dropped the country from their average of 76% voter turnout to just a 59.4% turnout. Comparatively, Australia, a former colony of Britain, has enjoyed high and steady voter participation since 1924 because of the implementation of compulsory voting. This system has proven to be not only effective in bring voters to the polls, but also effective in improving Australia’s democracy. By evaluating these two countries with similar political structure; one can see the difference in compulsory voting turnouts

In The Nineteenth Amendment of 1920 in Women's Suffrage Section 1: “The Right to Vote The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” This amendment was passed fifty years after black released slaves were granted the right to vote, and since before the creation of America when white male property owners were allowed to vote.1

America truly is in trouble. The voter turnout should be, in my opinion, atleast 75% of the total eligible population. I do NOT feel however that lowering the voting age will be the answer to this problem. As it may help the overall volume of voters, I feel it will diminish the percentages of voter participation.

On August 6, 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Voters Rights Act. Signed into law during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, it overcame legal barriers from states and local government agencies aimed at blocking African Americans from voting; a right guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution

As a citizens in the US, as soon as we turn eighteen we have the right to vote, this means we have a say in who represents us in government and whether certain issues are passed or not. We can vote in both local and national elections ranging from who’s on our school board to whom the president will be. Since this is America, we are free to complain about how the USA is today, but do we do anything to change it? Most of the USA does not actually do anything, in our generation the USA has seen the lowest voter turnout since World War 2. Some people will complain that their vote does not count but in reality it does, the local elections are based solely on the majority of the people, and in national elections the elected representatives of

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal laws (and law making) in the United States that prohibits (treating people unfairly based on their skin color) in voting based upon reading and writing ability tests. Some states allowed women to vote, however this right guaranteed that a state could not decide on their own if they allowed women to participate. Many people throughout history have fought for all people (who lawfully live in a country, state, etc.) to vote and laid the framework for shifting political decisions to represent all. The Voting Rights Act and Changes such as the 15th and19th opened up many doors for African Americans, Native Americans, and women. In the first election ever, 57.6% of Americans voted. When women were allowed to vote, voter attendance increased 44.5% from

The Voting Rights Act is a famous civil rights rule that goes back to the birth of this nation. In 1776 while men with property will have the right to vote however, Catholics, Jews Quakers and others are banded from voting. (www.aclu.com) Dr. Hogan, I know that this is a very complicated and complex subject, I’m just going to introduce the important markers that lead up to LBJ signing of the act in 1965. In 1856 Property qualifications for voting are eliminated in certain elections in North Carolina, giving all white men there the opportunity to vote. (www.aclu.org)

If one were to look at the voting history as of late in America you would surely find information on the Florida catastrophe in 2000. The problem with our voting system today is in the technology being used; many demographic groups find our current systems confusing and hard to use. As voters step into the polling places this election year many will be voting through new devices some even sporting “touch screen” technology and we can only hope that the new technology is understood and accepted.

Democracy is a unique type of government, and the purpose of this essay is to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses that a democratic government provides. I will detail that many components of this type of society are both strengths and weakness as each component has beneficial aspects as well as unavoidable pitfalls.

Young adults in current times have grown up with many rights that have not always been considered a right but instead a privilege. Voting is one of these rights that was once only considered a privilege, eligible for a particular gender and ethnicity. For many years this meant that the only group of people allowed to vote were white males. Today, things are different and everyone has the choice to vote after they reach the age of eighteen. The right to vote is a powerful right that we must take advantage of because not every country is lucky enough to have a say in their government. Today, in America we have the opportunity to decide if we would like to vote or not. Many Americans take pride in this right as it is considered a civic duty that has not always been eligible to everyone.