The Expansion of Voting Rights in the United States

Robert Dahl's Procedural Minimal Conditions of Democracy

• Definition and Overview: Political scientist Robert Dahl identifies three core procedural minimal conditions that define a democracy. While many Western democracies adopted the first two early on, the third has been a site of significant historical struggle.

• Public Contestation: This condition requires that a democracy chooses its leaders through competitive elections.

• Inclusion: This condition refers fundamentally to universal adult suffrage and the right of the adult population to participate in the voting process.

• Democratic Sovereignty: This condition mandates that the bodies elected by citizens in free and fair elections must possess the actual power to make consequential, legally binding decisions for the nation.

• The Struggle with Inclusion: Western democracies, including the United States and Great Britain, did not initially meet the condition of inclusion despite having competitive elections. Full inclusion emerged gradually through successive rounds of expansion for previously disenfranchised social categories.

Stage 1: The Founding Period and Jacksonian Democracy

• Initial Restrictions: At the founding of the United States in the late $18th$ century, voting was restricted to white males who were "freeholding men" (property owners who paid taxes).

• Disenfranchised Groups: Excluded from the initial electorate were all women, people of color, and poor white males who did not own property.

• 1789 Presidential Election: In the election that placed George Washington in office, only approximately $6\%$ of the total population was eligible to vote.

• Shift to State Control: In the early years of the republic, individual states and territories determined voting eligibility.

• Universal White Male Suffrage: By the middle of the $19th$ century, states had steadily expanded voting rights to all white men, regardless of property ownership.

• Jacksonian Democracy: This expansion played a critical role in the insurgent campaign of Andrew Jackson, who challenged the political establishment and promised a government more responsive to the "common man."

Stage 2: The Civil War and Reconstruction Era

• Constitutional Amendments: Following the Civil War and the end of slavery, three amendments were adopted to establish rights for African Americans:
      * Thirteenth Amendment: Abolished the institution of slavery.
      * Fourteenth Amendment: Granted citizenship to African Americans.
      * Fifteenth Amendment: Prohibited the denial of voting rights based on race or color.

• Early Political Impact: During the Reconstruction period, newly enfranchised black male voters exercised significant influence:
      * They were instrumental in electing Ulysses S. Grant to the presidency.
      * They elected $16$ black men to Congress in the decade following the Civil War.

• The End of Reconstruction: By the late $1870s$, the Republican Party's presence in the South vanished. White Southern state governments, under Democratic Party control, reimposed measures to strip African Americans of their voting rights.

• Disenfranchisement Tactics: To circumvent the Fifteenth Amendment, Southern states used:
      * Literacy tests.
      * Poll taxes.
      * Requirements for black voters to have a white person vouch for them.
      * White-only Democratic primaries.
      * Voter intimidation and physical violence.

Stage 3: The Women's Suffrage Movement

• Origins at Seneca Falls (1848): A convention in Seneca Falls, New York, is considered the birth of the movement. Key figures included abolitionist Frederick Douglass and suffrage advocates Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. They organized for property rights, economic rights, and the right to vote.

• Activism and Civil Disobedience:
      * 1872 Presidential Election: Susan B. Anthony and $15$ other women were arrested for attempting to vote in Rochester, New York.
      * Sojourner Truth: In Michigan in $1872$, the former slave and activist was turned away from a polling place when demanding a ballot.
      * Militant Tactics: Later decades saw surges in activism involving lobbying, marches, the breaking of windows, and hunger strikes.

• State-Level Successes: Western states led the way in domestic expansion. In $1890$, Wyoming became the first state to grant women the right to vote.

• Nineteenth Amendment (1920): This amendment established universal women's suffrage nationwide by prohibiting voting restrictions based on sex.

• Global Context of Suffrage:
      * New Zealand: The first self-governing country to allow women to vote ($1893$).
      * Early 1900s: Finland, Denmark, and Iceland established suffrage.
      * Pre-US (Late 1910s): Germany, Russia, and Great Britain granted women the right to vote.
      * Recent Adoption: Saudi Arabia established women's suffrage in $2015$.

• Ongoing Disenfranchisement: Women of color in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada remained largely disenfranchised for decades after initial suffrage gains due to discriminatory local laws like Jim Crow.

Stage 4: The Civil Rights Movement and the Voting Rights Act of 1965

• Lead-up to Legislation: Decades of activism led by icons such as Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis culminated in federal action under President Lyndon B. Johnson.

• Twenty-fourth Amendment (1964): This amendment outlawed the use of poll taxes in federal elections.

• Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA): A landmark law designed to eliminate racially discriminatory practices. It banned two primary types of discrimination:
      * Vote Denial: The use of methods like literacy tests to prevent minorities from casting a ballot or having it counted.
      * Vote Dilution: Using electoral rules to diminish the effectiveness of minority votes. This included drawing district lines to spread minority populations thin so they couldn't reach a "critical mass."

• Majority-Minority Districts: The VRA's provisions against dilution led to the creation of districts where a minority group (usually African American or Latino) comprises a plurality, facilitating the election of minority representatives to Congress.

Voting Rights for Native Americans and Asian Americans

• Native American Obstacles:
      * 1876: A federal court ruled Native Americans were not citizens under the Fourteenth Amendment.
      * Dawes Act (1887): Offered citizenship only if Native Americans renounced their tribal citizenship.
      * Indian Naturalization Act (1890): Created a naturalization process for Native Americans similar to that for immigrants.
      * 1924: Congress granted citizenship to all Native Americans.
      * State-Level Discrimination: Despite federal citizenship, states often banned those living on reservations from voting.
      * North Dakota Case (2018-2020): The Supreme Court upheld a law requiring IDs with residential addresses, which many reservation residents (who use PO boxes) lacked. A $2020$ settlement finally allowed these residents to vote without a residential address.

• Asian American Obstacles:
      * Chinese Exclusion Act (1882): Prohibited Chinese individuals from naturalizing.
      * Supreme Court Rulings (1922, 1923): Ruled that people of Japanese and Indian heritage were ineligible for naturalized citizenship.
      * McCarran-Walter Act (1952): Lifted all racial restrictions on naturalization, granting voting rights to Asian immigrants.
      * VRA Revisions (1975): Mandated voting materials in other languages to assist non-English speakers.

Contemporary Issues and the Youth Vote

• US Island Territories: Over $4,000,000$ citizens in Puerto Rico, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands cannot vote for president and have no congressional representation despite being US citizens. Over $98\%$ of this population consists of racial or ethnic minorities.

• Felon Disenfranchisement: Many states restrict or prohibit voting for those convicted of felonies. Because African Americans are disproportionately represented in the incarcerated population, these laws have a disparate impact on their voting power.

• Stage 5: The Twenty-sixth Amendment (1971): This amendment lowered the minimum voting age from $21$ to $18$ nationwide.
      * Context of War: During World War II, Franklin Roosevelt lowered the draft age to $18$. Pressure increased during the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
      * Rallying Cry: "Old enough to fight, old enough to vote."
      * Presidential Support: Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first president to advocate for lowering the age to $18$.
      * Ratification: The amendment was ratified in record time—just over two months. It added $11,000,000$ new voters for the $1972$ election.