The Importance Of Voting Rights In The United States

In 2013 a court case “Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder” that challenged the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision ruled that Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was an act that …..was unconstitutional because it was based off of old data and no longer applied to those certain nine states which were Alabama, Texas, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana and Virginia. (Excerpt from Shelby County, Ala. V. Holder) The Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder was unjust because it abolished Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act which protected minorities from voting discrimination in the South and caused a step back on the path to full equality because those nine states will go back to their ways where they discriminated and hindered African American and minorities from voting because they no longer have the authority of the Voting Rights Act over their heads.

We have come a long way from a time when only white, affluent, property owning males could vote. In terms of ‘voting rights’ it was a gradual expansion of the vote, which slowly began to expand to all whites, individuals once labeled slaves or ‘aliens’, African Americans, military personal and women. To vote in the United States, no longer do you need to pass a literacy test, but you must be a U.S citizen and at least 18 years old on Election Day. In addition, some states also require various periods of residency before voting is permitted. Furthermore some states restrict felons or those mentally incompetent to vote. In Massachusetts, for the first time, there was Early Voting. During this period, October 24th to November 4th, registered voters were allowed to cast their ballots. During this period of Early voting, I along with a group of classmates had the engaging opportunity to be an exit pollster. We decided to canvas much of the Boston area, with hopes of a ranging demographic. This hands-on experience, working with a team in carrying out the exit poll, allowed for a greater insight to the dynamics of election administration, a deeper understanding on the rights of voters and voter turn out, technique for attaining a random sample, the role of the interviewer and importance of survey design.

Voting is an essential right that has been given to citizens since it allows the society to become as close as it could to an ideal democracy - a nation governed by its people. Some people think that voting is the most important right of all. "The right to vote is the most basic right, without which all others are meaningless,  American president Lyndon Johnson once said. By means of voting, individuals have a direct say in different social and political issues.

Shaw provides a good point when he states: “Going through rehabilitation and reintegration, ex-felons become part of a law-abiding society with the same privileges as others in the society, proponents for voting rights argue.” If they go through these things to become a part of society again, then why are they not allowed the right to vote? This must be an upsetting process for those felons that want to become a part of society again and actually care to make a difference. All that they want to do is to be granted one of the basic fundamental rights guaranteed to citizens. I mean that’s the least they should get after going through the process that they do. It is only fair for them to obtain the right to vote again because at the end of the day they did what was required of them to become a part of society again and what is the use of that if they cannot even vote?

The United States of America is supposed to be a land of freedom where one can exercise the right to have various liberties that are not found in many other countries around the world. Among these liberties is the right to vote in a democratic government. Voting is a privilege in the United States that should not be taken for granted; many countries do not have the luxury of choosing who they want to represent them in government. Or if they do, they have in place a system that is called compulsory voting. Compulsory voting is a system in which voters are obligated to come to their designated polling place on Election Day to place a vote. If

Due to previous failures of other countries that tried to expand voting rights, there is fear of the expansion of voting rights in New York. According to Document B it states, “[universal suffrage]...has been regarded with terror...in every European republic...in which it has been tried, it has terminated disastrously...in the poor to covet and to share the plunder of the rich...We are no longer to remain plain and simple republics of farmers...We are fast becoming a great nation, with great commerce, manufactures, population, wealth, luxuries.” This demonstrates that since previous attempts at expanding voting rights have failed, New York should not expand voting rights and to oppose the proposal to drop property ownership requirements. James Kent voted against the amending of the constitution, but his opposition was unsuccessful because there were more votes towards amending the

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

“This act flows from a clear and simple wrong, its only purpose is to right that wrong. Millions of Americans are denied the right to vote because of their color. This law will ensure them the right to vote. The wrong is one which no American, in his heart, can justify. The right is one which no American, true to our principles, can deny.... It is not just a question of guilt, although there is that. It is that men cannot live with a lie and not be stained by it, “said the president (Equal Citizenship and the Individual Right to Vote). The Voting Rights Act was “one of the most monumental laws in the entire history of American freedom”—a law that, very exclusively, aimed to break down the legal barriers at the state and local governments’ level of authority that prohibited African Americans from exercising their constitutional right to vote.

In the United State there are 5.6 million people serving their time behind bars with many of their rights stripped away. Among these rights is the right to vote. Is this a right that the states can remove? This fact brings to light three main questions. First, do American inmates have the right to vote under American laws or the Constitution? Second, how would allowing inmates to vote change the face of elections? Finally, should inmates have the right to vote based on ethical premises? Today, we will attempt to answer these questions.

When the United States was still in its infancy, state versus national citizenship had no clear distinction due to the fact that noncitizen suffrage “was not controversial because voting rights were based on property and race, not citizenship” (Renshon 2008). Although it was without meaning, a precedent was set for which people were to vote in America’s elections: white men. Professor Leon E. Aylsworth (1931), a political science professor who assisted in the drafting of several laws in the Nebraska legislature stated in his article, “The Passing of Alien Suffrage” that:

The right to vote in the United States of America has been an utmost blessing paved through by preceding generations. The ability to vote has provided many Americans the opportunity to channel their political views and elect a representative to best govern a state and/or the country. The Electoral College is a standard used to establish the President and the vice-president elect. Indirect elections are held in each state to obtain a fair representation of the people’s vote. However, for some time in history, individuals of specific races and/or gender did not possess the same privilege to vote. Furthermore, this paper will highlight the history of voting in the United Sates and the specific groups discriminated against.

Ratified in 1868, the fourteenth amendment guarantees equal protection of all persons under the law. In the 1960’s though, African Americans were still being discriminated against because of the color of their skin. After the broadcast of 600 peaceful African Americans being attacked and beaten after attempting to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, President Lynden Johnson decided it was time to create some legislation to prevent incidences such as this from happening in the future. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 have been hailed as some of “the most far-reaching bills on civil rights in modern times” (Schmidt et. al. 2010, 98). At that time in history, they were exactly what the country

Like Malcolm Luther King said in his powerful speech " I have a dream that one day this nation will ... live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal'"(King). Voting Right in America have been a big issue in the past, only recently certain groups of people such as the African American are able to vote but to this day not every American has that right. For many years the United States have used territories in the Pacific and the Antilles, for mainly military purposes. Unfortunately, the millions who reside in the U.S territories do not have the same rights as every other American, they cannot vote for a president, have no U.S senators or a vote in the U.S House. These American

When the Supreme Court intervened in the case of Bush v. Gore, they violated the Equal Protection Clause and changed the way we look at democracy.] There is presumably no other case that better paints a picture of the injustice the Supreme Court caused during the 2000 presidential election.

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.