Voting In The 19th Century

Voting has been a core part of our government since the very beginning, however, many citizens chose not to take part in this essential participation. To prevent any one person from gaining too much power voting was put in place as well as checks and balances in the system by the founding fathers. While not everything is decided by voting because our government is a Constitutional Republic, voting is by far the most important way a citizen can participate in the government. Therefore, it’s baffling that people chose not to vote. As Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.” While we can all agree that voting is important there is a debate on whether it should be mandatory. Voting should be an optional but important way to participate in the government.

Before the United States Constitution was implemented in 1788, there was a certain principle in society where only men of a Caucasian race had the right to vote in elections. Many people including women and those of different races and colors protested, marched, and fought get the right to vote. Since the country's leaders at the time were dissatisfied with the structure of the society and government they decided to make the US Constitution. With the making of the Constitution it created amendments to better the rights of people and create a better society. Since women and people of different colors and races wanted the right to vote, the constitution created the 15th and 19th amendment. According to the legal form institute website last updated on November 2nd of 2009, it stated that the 15th amendment was "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 race, color, or previous condition of servitude. According to the history.com website last updated in 2010, it stated that the 19th amendment "granted American women the right to vote—a right known as woman suffrage (S)". Ever since the constitution was made it made a huge effect on today's society and government which gives every single person the right to vote.

The Act has undergone several changes and additions since its passage, but the U.S. Supreme Court found a key provision of the Act unconstitutional in 2013. The act significantly widened the franchise and is considered among the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history.” (Staff 3). In the article, Voting Rights Act, author Staff states, “The Voting Rights Act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson (1908-73) on August 6, 1965, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment (1870) to the Constitution of the United States.” (Staff 2). Even though all these efforts and laws were made to give everyone a fair and equal chance to vote, there are still many restrictions and setbacks everywhere in today 's society and the major ones are Voter ID laws, Voter registration restrictions, State felon disenfranchisement policies, Purging of Voter Rolls, Transgender Disenfranchisement, Disinformation about Voting Procedures, Inequality in Election Day Resources, and Caging Lists.

Voting right in America around the early 1800s was a very complex process, because many of the politicians and government leaders had supported slavery, which led to limited voting rights to those who were legally free. Women, however weren’t treated as equals to men, therefore they didn’t get much attention to their voting rights (which at the time there was none). There were two other major factors in voting as well, which were socioeconomics and land owners, making the poor worker class have very little political freedoms as well. Most of the voting privileges went to rich white men.

The Voting Rights act of 1965 was established on August 6, 1965. This law was set to outlaw discrimination of voting practices adopted in many Southern States after the civil war, including literary test as a prerequisite to voting. The act was signed into law by former president Lyndon Johnson after a century of deliberate and violent denial of the vote to African- Americans in the South and latinos in the Southwest as well as many years of entrenched electoral systems that shut out citizens with limited fluency in english. The voting Rights act of 1965 has traced back to the 14th and 15th Amendment where it grants citizenships to all persons born in the united states including former slaves and provided all citizens with equal protection

The 19th amendment states that the United States Constitution prohibits any United States citizen from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex. The 19th amendment was a significant turning point for many women in America. It gave women freedom that they didn’t have before. Before this amendment was passed many women had no self portrayal, something they couldn’t reach with a male figure ruling next to them. That was until 1920 when the 19th amendment was passed. The amendment let women into power giving them social justice and many political rights.

Voting in the early 1800’s was limited to white landowning males who paid taxes; neither women, African American slaves, nor the non- landowning/ non-taxpaying white males had the right to contribute to the

The 15th Amendment to the Constitution granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that 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 race, color, or previous condition of servitude."(The library of congress).The 15th amendment touched upon topics such as race and color but it had not touched on gender equality. It denied women certain rights, such as the right to vote. The constitution did not secure women’s rights to vote! How truly unfair this was! The constitution clarified that males had more power over women. Men were allowed to vote, and had many advantages over women. This made many women outraged. The accentuation on voting during the 1860s drove ladies' rights activists to concentrate on lady suffrage. The two sides built up two opponent national associations that intended to win ladies the vote.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 signed into law by President Lyndon B Johnson, this was to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented Africans-Americans from voting under the fifteenth amendment. The VRA gave African-Americans the right to vote and stating that people are not allowed to do anything to the people of different color or race while they are trying to vote, or forcing them to not vote. The fifteenth amendment was to prohibit states from denying a male citizen the right to vote based on race, or color; Still people who do not agree with this were trying to prevent African-Americans from voting.

One of the changes made to the Constitution was that slaves, women, and more citizens have the right of suffrage. In document #2, it states, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged...on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude...on account of sex.” It also states, “The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote, shall not be denied or abridged.” Both of these were added to the Constitution because although throughout history, citizens were angry that some of them didn’t have the right to vote. After the 13th amendment, blacks viewed themselves as citizens and they expected to have the right of suffrage. Women didn’t view themselves below men in the social class so they fought for the right to vote by protesting and creating female activist groups. To be able to fix this problem, the Constitution was

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

Women didn’t have the right to vote yet as well as African American men of women. Voting privileges were mainly limited to white male property owners; in some rare cases, you could be either/or one of those requirements. Changes occurred when states – mainly the Western states – “adopted constitutions that guaranteed all white males – not just property owners or taxpayers – the right to vote.” (Brinkley, 198-199) This also permitted all voters the right to hold office. A lawyer and activist, Thomas L. Dorr and some of his friends created a “People’s party” (Brinkley, 199) This party drafted a new constitution that was approved and eventually used as a foundation of new government started by the Dorrites. One of the most important political trends during the 1800s was the change in the method of choosing presidential electors. In 1800, the legislatures had chosen the presidential electors in ten states. Only six of those states participated in the choosing of the electors. However, in 1828 the electors were chosen by popular vote in every state except South Carolina. With all the changes in the election process, came the rapid growth of the electorate and the emergence of political

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a legislation piece that prohibits discriminating against races in voting, especially in Southern States.

Today, all presidential voters are picked by the voters, at the same time, in the early republic, the greater part the states picked balloters in their lawmaking bodies, along these lines disposing of any immediate inclusion by the voting open in the decision. This practice changed quickly after the turn of the nineteenth century, be that as it may, as the privilege to vote was stretched out to an ever-more extensive section of the populace. As the electorate kept on growing, so did the quantity of people ready to vote in favor of presidential balloters, to its present point of confinement of every qualified subject age 18 or more established. The convention that the voters pick the presidential balloters along these lines turned into an early

Democracy in the United States became prominent in the early to mid 19th century. Andrew Jackson, the 7th president of the United States, was inaugurated in 1829 and was best known as the person who mainstreamed democracy in America. Because he came from a humble background, he was the “genuine common man.” (Foner, pg. 303) He claimed he recognized the needs of the people and spoke on behalf of the majority [farmers, laborers]. However, critics of Jackson and democracy called him “King Andrew I” because of his apparent abuse of presidential power [vetoing]. These critics believed he favored the majority so much that it violated the U.S. constitution, and they stated he was straying too far away from the plan originally set for the