Voting Rights in America

Voting

• The US Constitution has minimal information about voting.
• Most voting regulations are determined by the states.
• States used to require voters to be 21 years old.
• States used to restrict voting to white males who owned land.
• In 1860, most white males were eligible to vote.
• Southern states resisted extending voting rights.
• Some claimed African Americans lacked necessary education to vote.
• Many states adopted restrictions based on the Mississippi plan.

1863 Emancipation Proclamation

• African American men joined the Union Army after the proclamation.
• 200,000 African Americans enlisted, with 38,000 dying, arguing those who die for the country should be able to vote.

15th Amendment

• Granted African American men the right to vote

Grandfather Clause

• If your grandfather was ineligible to vote, then you were also ineligible.
• Guinn v. Oklahoma (1915) concerned the grandfather clause.

Poll Tax

• A poll tax required a person to pay a tax before they could vote.
• The 24th Amendment banned poll taxes in federal elections.

Literacy Test

• People had to pass a test before they could vote.
• The Voting Rights Act of 1965 suspended literacy tests.

All-White Primary

• "All white primary's" advertised discrimination.
• The Democratic Party was effectively a private club open only to white voters.
• In "All white primary's", only party members could vote in the primary.

Voting Residency Requirements

• Voting residency requirements often required a year or more of residency before voting.
• This hurt sharecroppers and tenant farmers.
• The maximum residency requirement is 30 days for federal elections.
• The maximum residency requirement is is 55 days for state and local elections.

19th Amendment

• Granted women the right to vote.
• Wyoming was the first state to grant women voting rights.
• A purity argument stated that women would eliminate corruption.

26th Amendment

• Passed during the Vietnam War.
• Lowered the voting age to 18.

Current Day Voting Eligibility

• You must be a US citizen
• You must be 18 years old.
• You must be a resident of your state.
• Prisoners and the homeless cannot vote.
• Individuals declared mentally incompetent by a judge cannot vote

Voter Fraud

• Many states have adopted voter ID laws to combat voter fraud.

Voter Turnout

• Voter turnout is the participation rate of a given election.

Apathy

• Apathy is not caring about voting
• Apathy is being focused on other parts of life.
• Apathy is not seeing the impact of policies on their lives.

Ignorance

• Is when people do not know when there is an election.

An overview of voting rights in America and the constitutional amendments related to it. The 15th Amendment granted African American men the right to vote. Several methods were used to suppress the vote.