History Of Voting In America

The United States first began to deal with the issue of voter suppression during the Reconstruction. During Reconstruction freed slaves earned their right to vote and hold office through the fifteenth amendment in 1870. In 1877, Democrats, known as Dixiecrats, began to impose laws that were designed to suppress the African American vote or better known as Jim Crow Laws. The Jim Crow voting laws required the freedmen to pass literacy tests that they were unable to pass because of no formal education because of their status of slaves. Many states created poll taxes, which many poor Americans, white and black, were unable to pay. Many precincts made their voting precincts “white only” so that blacks would have nowhere to cast their votes. The Jim Crow voter suppression tactics were so successful that only three percent of African Americans in the south were registered to vote in 1940. Although African American males were given the right to vote in

It seemed as though black people were finally starting to be recognized as actual people. According to the article “Reconstruction” on the website ushistory.org it says, “Under federal bayonets,blacks, including those who had recently been freed, received the right to vote, hold political offices, and become judges and police chiefs.” African Americans were finally able to hold some type of power in political offices and could have jobs of importance, however, many Southerners were angered by black people having this new sense of freedom. From the same article it says, “Many Southern whites could not accept the idea that former slaves could not only vote but hold office. It was this era that the Ku Klux Klan was born.” Douglass’s dream of equality was starting to slip away with white supremacists discriminating against black people. To this day, there is still racism and discrimination among not only African Americans but all races and this goal of equality has yet to be reached and may not be achieved ever.

The right to vote has always been a topic of controversy in the United States. In recent years, everyone has the ability to do so long as they follow the necessary steps. However, given that this power does indeed offer a strong connection between the government and the people, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they all stand equally in relation to the government. Willcox stated that prejudices based upon religion, color, and property have been left behind, but the opposite is true. Although the law has allowed for the people to vote without circumstance so long as they are a citizen and gives off the impression that they must all be treated equally, the contrast is astonishing when put into practice.

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

Throughout the years many Americans have faced what is known as voter suppression. When researching voter suppression you will find that it is defined as a strategy to influence the outcome of an election by discouraging or preventing those with voting rights from voting. I interpret that the causes of voter suppression derives from that of equality issues or a misconception of government. However, history recorded the effects of voter suppression which leads to major violence, rebellion, strikes, or in some cases fear. The jarring act of voter suppression began early as 1776 when white men owning property were allowed to vote denying Jews, Catholics, and others their voting rights.

Before the Civil War, there were no federal laws to protect voting rights. Only white males had the right to vote. In 1870, the 15th Amendment was established which stated “Specifically that the right to vote shall not be denied or abridged on the basis of race, or previous condition of servitude” (Introduction to Federal Voting Rights Laws). This amendment gives all Americans the right to be a voice of change for the people by electing officials who will make a difference in their communities. Unfortunately, one mistake can cause you to lose this right forever. As stated by Eric H. Holder, JD, US Attorney General, in his Feb. 11, 2014, speech;

In the early years of the United States, voting laws were very strict and only a select few people were able to vote. In 1776, only people who owned land were permitted to vote. Most people in this category were white males over the age of 21. This continued for many decades: in 1790 the Naturalization Law passed. It explicitly stated that only “free white” immigrants can become naturalized citizens. This gave only free white people the right to vote- very little progress was being made.

That is why another reason for a citizen to opt to vote would be that not voting disrespects the people who fought; and sometimes died, for those rights. Not voting desecrates what these brave people vote so hard for. Not voting tells all the people that fought for the right to vote that their sacrifices was unnecessary and insignificant. Voting is not only a right but a responsibility, a privilege, and “is no more restrictive than requiring them to register for the draft”.(John W. Dean, Document

Before this, in all but six states, African Americans’ right to vote had been denied. With Reconstruction and the 15th amendment- giving all citizens the right to vote regardless of their race, now meant the Black men would be able to vote and the ban had been ended. (At this time no women, of any race, had the right to vote. With such a huge shift in the country, you may be wondering what type of reaction followed this decision? From what I gathered, the White Supremacists were not happy and a series of strategies came about to prevent the African Americans from voting. Such strategies included, were the implementation of poll taxes, literary tests, and … you guessed it, felony disenfranchisement just to name a few. (Safety and Justice,

In “Race and Beyond: Why Young, Minority, and Low-Income Citizens Don’t Vote,” Sam Fulwood claims, “Regardless of whether a favored candidate won or popular ballot initiative passed, our nation suffered because of the number of people who didn’t vote at all” (par. 2). I agree with Sam Fulwood and I believe it is so unfortunate that Americans don’t use this right. Voting is one of the most valuable possessions that Americans are given and yet they do not use. Many of the countries around the world do not grant voting rights to their citizens. These countries either have a dictatorship or kingdom which prevents citizens from voting. People need to understand the sufferings of those people who struggled for this right. When the United States

Since the United States of America established itself as its own self-governing country, one of the things that caused it to be salient and stand out from other countries is its relentless insistence on functioning as a democracy. Wars and protests have occurred so that every type of people, whether it was women or African Americans, may be granted the right to vote. Having a say in the American government is an honor and a privilege bestowed upon American citizens when they reach the age of eighteen. However, in recent years, statistics have shown that voter turnout and participation in recent elections has been rapidly and steadily declining, causing the United States to have the lowest voter participation in the world (“Is the System

Despite the Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendments to the United States, which had enforced black man and women, southern voter registration boards used poll taxes, literacy test and other bureaucratic impediments to deny African American and their legal rights. Southern blacks

In the world today it may seem as if there’s no hindrance from voting, as long as someone is a naturalized citizen or a member of the U.S. Army. However, the voting world has not always been such a perfect, crystal clear topic or process; there used to be several blockades before someone could even vote when the country was young. Not even all white men had the right to vote, but getting their suffrage was a surprisingly easier climb than anyone else. Land ownership and Protestant faith was what a white man over the age of twenty one needed to vote. Slowly that requirement grew more complicated, as states were allowed to determine what a citizen needed in order to vote. States held various requirements, eventually evaporating for the white man between 1776 and 1856 when North Carolina removed property ownership from their requirements to vote. That was only the rise to being able to vote without restraint, only needing citizenship; not the right to vote for everyone.

In America citizens have the right to vote if you are eighteen or older. A lot of people believe if you are eligible to vote then you should be required to vote. Another viewpoint is if you do not know what you are voting over and how it will affect our country then you should not vote. The last big viewpoint on voting is that people do not think their vote truly counts in the long run they think the electoral college takes the biggest amount of our votes. In 2012, just over half of the Americans eligible to vote actually voted with the Presidential Election.

feel unworthy of voting. They thought that if the blacks felt poor, then blacks would not vote because they thought of themselves as improper. The money wasn’t all that much, it was only $1 to $2 a year. Many of the Southerners would not hire, and even if they did they would not pay enough for the blacks and a select few whites to pay the poll tax. No states punished those who did not pay the tax, but many people who had to pay the tax were afraid of what would happen if they did not pay. People also felt the need to pay them since if you did not pay you couldn't vote. In 1937 a white man went to the Supreme Court saying that the poll taxes were unconstitutional compared to the 14th and 19th amendments. Since he thought that the taxes were taking away a citizen's right to vote freely without consequence. He also thought they were opposing of sex since women who were registered to vote had to pay the tax and the women not registered did not have to pay the tax,no matter what color or class they were.The Supreme Court dismissed his claims, saying that the poll taxes were simply to collect revenue and in no way were related to disfranchisement. They also said that the 19th amendment was solely meant for voting rights and it had no relation to taxation.The case was called Breedlove v.s Suttles.