Voting

Universal Voting Requirement:

  • citizenship

  • age

  • residence

Registration: procedure of voter identification intended to prevent fraudulent voting (considered an institutional barrier to voting)

:Stages of Sufferage

  1. All white men over 21 (late 1820’s)

  2. All men (sort of- supposed to be regardless of race)

  3. All people over 21

  4. Civil Rights 1960’s (eliminated poll tax)

  5. People over 18 and not a convicted felon

Jim Crow Laws: laws enacted by the southern states that discriminated against black people

Gerrymandering: drawing electoral district line to limit voting strengths of a particular group/party

  • used to disenfranchise African Americans

Civil Rights Act of 1957: established the US Civil Rights Commission to handle claims of voter discrimination

Civil Rights Act of 1960: established voter referees to serve where voter discrimination was found

Civil Rights Act of 1964:

  • discrimination in jobs

  • literacy requirements

  • ended voter registration discrimination

Injunction: court order that either forces or restrains the act of an individual

Voting Acts Right of 1965:

  • came about because of Martin Luther King Jr.

  • made voter discrimination illegal in all elections

  • gave the attorney general the power to challenge poll taxes, literacy tests, and appoint examiners to oversee elections

Preclearance: any new election laws had to be approved by the Federal Govt (Department of Justice)