Voting rights/behavior

Section 1

• Only white male property owners were allowed to vote. The Framers most likely limited voting to these individuals due to views favoring white supremacy, patriarchy, and classism being rampant amongst most at the time. They were seen as “most qualified” to vote.

5 stages of Voting Rights expansion

(1)

• Entails all white men gaining the right to vote regardless of religious qualification, property ownership, and tax payment qualification. 

•  Religious qualifications disappeared in the 1800s.  

• Property ownership and tax payment qualifications would disappear gradually, resulting in most white adult males being able to vote by mid-century. 

(2)

• Follows the Civil War. 

• 15^th Amendment in 1870 allowed all males to vote regardless of race or color. However, African American men were still systemically restricted from voting. 

(3)

• 19^th Amendment in 1920 gave women the right to vote. 

(4)

• The 1960s secured African Americans a full role in the electoral process. 

• 23^rd amendment in 1961 added voters of the District of Columbia to the presidential electorate. 

(5)

• 26^th Amendment in 1971 provides that no State can see the minimum age for voting at more than 18 years of age. 

Constitution restrictions on state voter qualification

1. Any person whom a state allows to vote for members of the most numerous branch of its own legislature must also be allowed to vote for representatives and senators in Congress; Voters must be allowed to vote in all elections. 

2. No state can deprive any person of the right to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 

3. No state can deprive any person of the right to vote on account of sex.  

4. No state can require payment of any tax as a condition for taking part in the nomination or election of any federal officeholder.  

5. No state can deprive any person who is at least 18 years of age of the right to vote because of age.

Section 2

Universal voting requirements

• Citizenship

• Residence

• Age

  Do you think there should be any more qualifications to vote? If so identify them and explain why you think they should be added. 

Maybe a qualification that requires proof of education of the voter. 

-North Dakota is the only state that does not require its voters to register.

-Southerners used literacy tests and poll taxes to systematically oppress African American voters because they knew many African Americans were poor and had low rates of literacy.  

-The Grandfather Clause was designed to still restrict African Americans from voting while accounting for poor, low literacy white men.

• It set in place that if one’s grandfather voted in the last election, they could vote.

• However, African Americans had just been given the right to vote, meaning that their grandfather wouldn’t have been able to vote in the last election.

-Poll taxes are no longer used because The Supreme Court could find no reasonable relationship between the act of voting on the one hand and the payment of a tax on the other in the Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections.

-I believe introducing voter identification would be a good way to prevent voter fraud. It can prevent impersonation, prevent non-citizens from voting, and stop out-of-state residents registering in multiple jurisdictions.  

Section 3

-Early Civil Rights legislation was not effective because although there were laws passed to protect minority voting rights, they still could not vote due to systematic oppression. The laws were not being enforced, and the people in charge would not adhere to the law.

-Gerrymandering easily falls under the many ways to manipulate elections and oppress voters, especially minority voters at the time. Gerrymandering is often used by the majority to diminish the voting power or impact of a voter often in the minority. Gerrymandering is discriminatory to African Americans because it essentially removes the value of their vote.

-Many modern issues with voting rights concern regulation of voting. Specifically, it entails issues regarding voter security, voter registration, and prevention from fraudulent voting. The 2020 election resulted in many Republicans claiming that the election was “stolen”, and that Joe Biden and the Democrats had committed voter fraud. 

Section 4

-There are “Cannot-Voters” who aren’t legally allowed to vote or those who simply just can’t vote. This includes medically ill people, disabled people, elderly people without transportation, and even people who believe voting is against their religious beliefs. A significant number of people cannot vote today because of (1) the purposeful administration of election laws to keep them from doing so and/or (2) various “informal” local pressures applied to that same end.

• Actual nonvoters consist of people who simply just choose not to vote because either they don’t trust political institutions and processes, believe that they’ll be fine no matter who gets elected, or lack any feeling of influence or effectiveness in politics.  

-People who vote usually have a higher income, education, and occupational status. They are usually well integrated into community life and are active in their surroundings. They are also likely to have a stronger sense of political party identification and live in areas where laws, customs and competition promote turnout.  

• Nonvoters, on the other hand, are likely to be younger than age 35, unmarried, and unskilled. More nonvoters live in the South and in rural, rather than urban or suburban areas.

Sociological factors that influence voters

Income and Occupation: Voters in lowers income brackets are more likely to be Democrats. Voters with higher incomes tend to be Republicans. Voters in higher income groups support the President by wide margins, while voters in lower incomes do not. 

Education: Higher levels of education correlate with greater political engagement and liberal/progressive views. Vice versa, Lower levels of education with less political engagement and more conservative views. However, these correlations can vary or differ depending on specific issues or contests.  

Age: Older people are much more reliable in terms of voting while younger people are not. Older people will also usually lean conservative while younger will lean towards progressive policies. Again, this can vary and is not polarized.  

Gender: There are certain issues in politics that can affect voters based on gender. An example is the topic of Abortion. Women will likely vote based off strong opinions on abortion as it affects them. 

Ethnicity and Race: Ethnicity and Race can influence a voter potentially. Voters might vote for a candidate purely because they know that they will be safe and secure under their policies through a civil rights standpoint.  

Religion: Voters who believe very strongly in their faith will most likely vote for the candidate that aligns with their religious beliefs the closest.  

Geography: People can be influenced by the majority political view in their region.  

• In my opinion, an uninformed voter is more dangerous to democracy than a nonvoter. A nonvoter at least has somewhat of an idea on what each candidate and what the political side the spectrum leads to is like. An uninformed voter does not. An uninformed voter is voting purely based off of ignorance. Not voting and knowing what’s going on is better than voting and not knowing what’s going on.