BELLWORK (Periods 1 & 5) What does suffrage mean? (Page 482)

BELLWORK (Periods 3, 4, 6 & 7) List at least two of the many provisions of the Voting Rights Act of (Page 484)

Reminder Chapter 17 Assessment: 1-16, Pages Due Friday

Due Today All Missing Work: Needs to be turned in today, missing tests need to be taken today at lunch.

TAKE NOTES OF ANYTHING IN: BLACK

Expanding Voting Rights CHAPTER 17, SECTION 2 Essential Question: Are voting rights in danger?

Early Voting Rights in America For decades, voting in most states was limited to white male landowners, meaning only 5% of the U.S. population was eligible to vote. Slowly the right to vote expanded, the first group to earn voting rights were non-landowning white men in the early 1800s. The next group who gained voting rights were African Americans through the 15 th Amendment. 15 th Amendment says that no state can deprive any citizen of the right to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Unfortunately, this did not grant women the right to vote and many state created voting laws like poll taxes and literacy tests to limit the number of African Americans voting. Woman’s suffrage did not occur until the passing of the 19 th Amendment in Initially, you had to be 21 to vote but only 18 to fight in war. This changed with the 26 th Amendment in 1971, it lowered the voting age to 18.

Background info from chapter 14 Although the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s achieved much, it did not solve everything. Unfortunately, even some of the things that it achieved are in danger, for instance the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Two years ago, the Supreme Court undermined the Voting Rights Act. They ruled it was time to update a section of the act that says states that have a history of minority voter suppression have to clear changes to their voting laws with the Justice Department. Since the section was removed, some states have already passed laws making it difficult for certain groups of people to vote. Congress has the job of updating this section of the act so it can be reinstated, but have failed to do so. Tragically, the right that all those who marched in Selma 50 years ago is now in danger.

New voting restrictions Since that section of the Voting Rights Act was removed, many states have instituted voting laws. These laws that restrict many from voting are reportedly exacted to protect against voter fraud. Later in the lesson we will be looking into voter fraud. Some of theses voting restrictions include: Voter must have a gov’t-issued photo ID, 11% of the voting age population do not have photo IDs, most of them are African Americans, Latinos, young adults, and low-income citizens. Even Nevada’s legislature is trying to pass this restriction. Voter must have access to documents proving citizenship in order to register to vote. Early voting has been limited to inconvenient hours, such as not being offered on weekends, this makes it difficult for many working full-time jobs to work.

States with voting restrictions

Partner up! Is Voter Fraud a Real Problem? In today’s group work, we will be looking into the issue of voter fraud. Many states are passing voting restrictions, such as requiring gov’t issued IDs. They say they are doing this to prevent voting fraud. You and your partner will both read the “Is Voter Fraud a Real Problem?” paper. Next, you and your partner will be reading two different arguments, one is for and one is against. Each student will write down a summary of the argument they read in order to relay the information from that argument to their partner, you can do this on your notes. Once the summaries have been written discuss the arguments, explain the argument you read. Next, on one piece of paper, with both of your names, discuss and answer the questions listed on the paper that both you and your partner read initially.

Closing Activity: Partner up! Quick Write Are unrestricted voting rights essential to a democracy? Do you think Oregon has taken a step in the right direction? Is it dangerous? Why or why not? While some states, like Nevada are trying to restrict voting rights, other state’s like Oregon are attempting to make voting easier. Oregon has automatic voter registration, meaning that if you have a drivers license, you are automatically registered to vote.