North Carolina's Voting System

Historically in America, voting has been a relatively discriminatory practice. It has limited and deprived many individuals of many diverse races, ethnicities, and walks of life from casting their votes to select the individual who they feel is most educated, and skilled to represent their interests. Not only has this been proven to be wrong by discriminating minority groups in voting, it also has proved to be a process, which minimizes the largest growing demographics in the country. Furthermore, with millennials growing to become more politically active, minority groups are becoming more politically involved than ever. Taking this into account an important question that is raised by the author William Eskridge in his book “Legislation and Statutory Interpretation” is “Would minorities be better off with more representatives who had to pay attention to their interests because they are a powerful and organized constituency, rather than with a few representatives of minority districts who specialize in protecting only their interests?” (Eskridge,Frickley,& Garrett, 2006, pp.55).

A very controversial topic in the United States is whether or not Americans should be required to vote. Voting is a very essential piece to democracy, but many Americans today are not attending their voting location and supporting the candidate they feel is best. In recent elections, just 60% of registered voters casted their vote for a candidate. This is an issue that many people are not happy about, but whether or not there is reason to fix it is the other side to the case. Voter participation is an issue that has been going on for years, and no laws are in place currently to bring it up. Americans have been proud to live in a “free country”, and a law forcing citizens to vote may be against America’s principles. Compulsory voting should

Even after the passing of the Fifteenth Amendment, African Americans were “disenfranchised in the South by intimidation and electoral trickery, including whites-only primaries, rigged literacy tests, and poll taxes” (Patterson 2011, p. 180). The Freedom Riders rode through the South, enduring harassment and imprisonment to encourage other African Americans to vote. Voter turnout in African American communities is greatly encouraged. Personally, coming from an African American family, I was strongly encouraged by my parents and grandparents to vote when I was of legal age. My family instilled the importance of voting in me at a very young age. Although voter turnout among African Americans is still fairly low, in the 2008 presidential election African Americans had the second highest voter turnout, behind non-Hispanic Caucasians (African Americans, n.d.). Race can influence voter turnout because with African Americans specifically, although rates are getting better, they are still not high.

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.

Voters Identification law may suppress minority voting and it may not suppress minority voting. We have so many different races that enter this country with permission and without. The laws for visiting or becoming a legal resident in this country is complicated especially because of the terrorist attacks. Identification laws are necessary in my opinion. It helps identify people, most importantly it helps to decrease any fraudulent activities in this country. I can say if it has anything to do with racial and ethnic minorities, maybe it’s a coincidence that majority of African Americans and Hispanic have less access to photo IDs, some of us are not legal citizens, or maybe not. The law complicates everything in general for good reasons so they feel. I can understand what the research and studies demonstrates, about the decrease in minority audience and increase Republican Party turnouts. I do believe if you have a higher mindset you can attain all things that seem impossible. I know firsthand how difficult it is for African Americans to register to vote without an ID, the law won’t even to let you register if its expired. So what the law has gotten strict, so what, that should motivate African Americans and other races in this country to push through any obstructions to get an ID so they can be apart in making changes in this society. I know African Americans went through what may have seem like Hell but they overcame it and contribute to adding Amendments, why go through

Democrats, who almost unanimously oppose voter identification laws, strongly feel that minority groups of voters, who tend to vote Democratic, are more likely to not have the resources, knowledge, or means to have or obtain the necessary identification requirements for the polls. In a research project developed by Matt A. Barreto, Stephen A. Nuño, and Gabriel R. Sanchez, testing was conducted to “determine the rates of access to valid photo identification among voters and non-voters in Indiana, with an eye towards specific demographic groups, such as the elderly and racial minorities” (Barreto, Nuño, and Sanchez 112). Indiana was selected because of its strict voter identification law and for the ability to closely assess specific segments of the electorate under such a law. Their research method, using a random telephone survey of 1,000 registered and 500 non-registered voters, was conducted in a way that was unbiased and provided the most reliable and accurate results possible (Barreto, Nuño, and Sanchez

Following the Civil War and freeing of slaves all over America a new question arose: Should black people be able to vote? Further, were they even citizens in the fullest sense? Now freed from slavery, black Americans found themselves in a political limbo where they were no longer property but not fully citizens. In an effort to extend protection from discrimination at the poll booth, an amendment to the Constitution was passed declaring it unlawful to deny voting on account of race. This amendment, however, was met with unprecedented resistance. Suppression of the black vote was just one step in preventing black Americans from being treated as citizens.

With all adversities that was overcome the right to vote remains one of the few things that makes us all equal. No matter your color, wealth, gender, and religion. We all get one vote; which is one of the many beauties of our democracy. With this right comes a great deal of responsibilities that many citizens

In contrast Midwestern states, as well as New Hampshire and Rhode Island are more likely to have white populations at or above the national average of 79% as well as higher GDP per state than their Southern counterparts as seen in Appendixes 4 and 5. Unlike Southern states, Midwestern states, plus New Hampshire and Rhode Island, have less need to keep minority and poorer populations, who are less likely to have a form of voter Id, from the voting booth because they do not hold as much sway in elections as they do in the south. In addition, a few of these states are Democratic strongholds negating any need to disenfranchise these populations as they make up the majority of the Democratic voting base. While political culture and region, race, and poverty level appear to be strong indicators of voter ID laws in the south, the Midwest alongside New

The most important factor to evaluate if voter turnout has decreased is calculating and constructing the turnout rate, “when it equals the total number of votes cast divided by the eligible electorate” (McDonald and Popkin 2001, 963). This means that researchers rely upon the Bureau of Census statistics of the voting-age population (VAP) for the denominator. According to the Bureau of the Census, the VAP includes people ineligible to vote. This group of people consists of noncitizens, felons, and the mentally incompetent. The voting-age population also fails to include the citizens who are living overseas whose votes can count. The inclusion of ineligible populations in the VAP creates a negative skew to the data used to calculate voter participation. This, in turn, would make voter participation appear to be declining more than it actually is since, according to McDonald and Popkin, the population of those ineligible to vote, like noncitizens and felons, has been

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

In 1973 Congress amended the Voting Rights Act and extended protections to members of “languages minorities.” The new language minorities’ classification meant that the act’s protection now extended to voters non-English speaking minorities. These classifications included those who spoke Spanish, Native American languages, Native Alaskan languages, and Asian languages. Some of the changes to the new amendment within the Voting Rights Act prohibited literacy tests as a requirement for voter registration. It also required jurisdictions with large minority language speaking populations to have non-English speaking ballots as well as oral voting instructions that conformed to the language minorities within their districts. Additionally, the new amendments to the Voting Rights Act also protected minorities from voter dilution (the nullification of minority group votes through a

As politics and government becomes more complex and involved, more effort is required to keep up with and understand it. As a result, many Americans have lost touch with current events and happenings. Therefore, when election time rolls around, many people lack enough information to develop an educated opinion and support a candidate with their vote, so they just do not vote at all. This lack of information is also related to the belief that one vote will not matter. People believe that their vote will not count, and are therefore following the news less and becoming out of touch with public affairs and politics (Is the System Broken?”). This lack of information is also more strongly apparent among the younger voting population. When interviewed

Political participation is valid; however, we still see many problems. For instance, voter identification requirements have a substantially negative impact on the voting power of several voting groups. People who belong to a group which is the minority, face with some problems. They are inhibited by the majority to keep the constant rate of vote in order to reach to success. In other words, they are excluded from the society. There may be people who are aware of this situation but for those who aren’t should know that Texas Republicans have a reason to stop minority voting. Ginsburg noted the motive behind the tougher ID law, which is that the state’s ruling class of mostly white Republicans is less and less representative of the state’s population as a whole. “In light of the “seismic demographic shift” in Texas between 2000 and 2010, making Texas a “majority-minority state,” the District Court observed that the Texas Legislature and Governor had an evident incentive to “gain partisan advantage by suppressing” the “votes of African-Americans and Latinos.” From this information another ugly side of humanity can be seen.

Voting is a vital portion of conducting everyday life. Americans have more freedom than many other people in countries around the globe; therefore, it is pertinent to express that freedom in many ways. Up until 1965 when the Voting Rights Act was signed into law, many people of color, gender, and all other classifications in the United States fell under one umbrella: not having the ability to vote. (massvote.org) As far as Americans having the ability to vote, 218,959,000 people have the eligibility to vote as of August 16th, 2015. Out of that significantly large number, 146,311,000 are actually registered to vote. (statisticbrain.com) This large gap in people with the eligibility to vote, and actual registered voters, is very alarming. As an American, it is the right and duty of a citizen to exercise all attainted rights by voting in all elections, even if the favored party seems to lose to no avail. (theodysseyonline.com)