Expanding Voting Rights Chapter 18 : Lesson 1 Expanding Voting Rights

Essential Question How was African American suffrage restricted and extended in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries?

Voting and the Constitution The qualifications for voting are not spelled out in the Constitution. Therefore, the states determine qualifications for voting. At our founding, only white land owners could vote.

Expanding Voting Rights 15th Amendment ensured that all former male slaves could vote 19th Amendment guaranteed women the right to vote 24th Amendment eliminated poll tax 26th Amendment gave 18 years olds right to vote

Universal Voting Requirements Citizenship = voters must be citizens of the US, either native born or naturalized. Residency = voters must have residency in state Age = voters must be at least 18 years old.

The Debate Over Voter Registration Requirements The Court’s decision was supported by Republicans and opposed by Democrats. The new focus of debate is over whether voters should be required to show a photo ID? One side argues that ID’s protect against voter fraud, the other says it is voter suppression.

People who cannot vote Some Americans are barred from voting including: Resident aliens who are not citizens Some people in mental health facilities. Some states bar felons from voting.

Why don’t people vote? People who think things are going well and they don’t bother voting People who don’t think their votes counts. These people are said to not have a sense of political efficacy. Some people are put off by difficult registration procedures or long ballots.

Who doesn’t vote? The highest percentage of non voters come from the following groups: Low income Americans Young people People with the lowest levels of education People from the South and rural areas People with low party identification

Sociological Factors in Voting More Likely to Vote Democrat More Likely to Vote Republican Low Income Individuals Women Younger Voters Catholics Jews African Americans Mexican Americans Big Cities in North, East, and West Higher Income Individuals College Graduates Men Older Voters Protestants Cuban Americans Southerners

Party Identification Voters with strong party identification tend to do straight ticket voting (Vote for all Democrats or all Republicans) Voters with weak party identification are more likely to do split-ticket voting.

Expanding Voting Rights Suffrage- The civil right to vote Today almost anyone 18 years or older can vote However, this has not always been the case in this country

Expanding Voting Rights Women’s Suffrage Women suffragists were accused of being unfeminine and immoral. The Suffragists were split into two groups, one focusing on getting the right to vote via Constitution and the other by each individual state.

Expanding Voting Rights Women’s Suffrage Women held a lot of marches to gain support and protest for suffrage

Expanding Voting Rights Women’s Suffrage Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony felt that the only way to gain women’s suffrage was to have the Constitution Amended. After WWI states began to individually grant women the right to vote and Congress began to accept the idea. 19th Amendment- Went into effect in 1920, guaranteeing women the right to vote.

Expanding Voting Rights Women’s Suffrage

Expanding Voting Rights African-American Suffrage The 15th Amendment was ratified in 1870 “No state can deprive any citizen of the right to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition.”

Expanding Voting Rights African-American Suffrage The 15th Amendment did not result in full suffrage for African Americans A number of states set up road blocks for African Americans Particularly the Southern States

Grandfather Clause Only Voters whose grandfathers voted before 1867 were eligible to vote without paying a poll tax or passing a literacy test. This was declared Unconstitutional in 1915.

Literacy Test Used to keep African Americans from voting Very hard test designed to make a person fail The voting Rights Acts of 1965 and 1970 outlawed literacy tests

Poll Tax An amount of money that a citizen had to pay before they could vote You also had to pay for back taxes on years you voted before You had to pay long before election day and show the receipt the day you voted The 24th Amendment was ratified in 1964 outlawing poll taxes in National Elections State elections in 1966(By Supreme Court)

Voting Rights Act of 1965 Opened the gates for African American involvement in voting (especially in the South) 1960: 29% in the South 1990: 60% in the South

26th Amendment Originally the voting age was 21 The draft and the Vietnam Conflict started a movement to lower the age to 18 The argument was that if a person was old enough to die for his country he should be old enough to vote

26th Amendment The 26th Amendment was ratified in 1971 lowering the voting age from 21 to 18

Review Question: Chapter 18 : Lesson 1 Read pages 540-544 and answer Review Questions on page 544. Hand in Google Class Room.