1. The Right to Vote
Lesson 20

2. Lesson Objectives
Describe the extension of the franchise as a result of changes in voting laws in Congress and various states, amendments to the Constitution and decisions of the Supreme Court.
Evaluate, take and defend positions on how extending the right to vote is related to fundamental ideas and principles o f American Constitutional Government.

3. Why is the franchise important in the American Constitutional System
Franchise: refers to a right or privilege…specifically the right to vote
Enfranchisement is the act of giving that right to vote to a person or a group of people.
Republican forms of government are based on people having a say, either indirectly or directly
Most basic form of participation is voting in elections
Roman and Greek democracies held that citizens should have an economic stake in their community to vote intelligently.

4. Colonists shared the view, but limited to white, protestant males.
Greeks and Romans believed that property owners were more inclined than others to participate in politics and to act in the public interest.
Colonists shared the view, but limited to white, protestant males.
Virginia: 25 acres settled; 100 unsettled
New York allowed lifetime leases
By European standards, the franchise in America was generous and far exceeded the scope of the voting franchise in Great Britain.
Whole classes of people were excluded from voting

5. How was suffrage determined when the Constitution was adopted?
Constitutional Convention could not agree on rules of voting
House members were elected by the people and could vote on their behalf
States decided who could vote
Many battles originated at the state level
Example: New Jersey: 1776 – all inhabitants that met property and residency standards.
Included widowed or unmarried women, African American
Married women could not vote (property rights were the husbands)
Changed in 1807 – election reform women were disenfranchised
1844 African men were disenfranchised

6. How did voting rights expand for white men?
Thomas Paine identified problem with linking property to voting:
“You require that a man shall have sixty dollars worth of property, or he shall not vote. Very well, take an illustration. Here is a man who today owns a jackass, and the jackass is worth sixty dollars. Today the man is a voter and goes to the polls and deposits his vote. Tomorrow the jackass dies. The next day the man come to vote without his jackass and he cannot vote at all. Now tell me, which was the voter, the man or the jackass?”
James Fenimore Cooper, author of The Last of the Mohicans, argued, “Every man who has wants, feelings, affections and character has a stake in society.”

7. Some states (Mass) kept property requirements
Concern over former President John Adams’ concerns: Anarchy and mob rule would erupt if men with no property had the right to vote.
1851 Virginia abolished the requirement
1802 Ohio gave the vote to white men to attract settlers
Older states began to abolish property requirements
Most reforms were accomplished peacefully
RI – an exception– Thomas Wilson Dorr – held a “People’s Convention” to draft a new state constitution. Was considered a rebellion that was quickly put down. RI did adopt a new constitution that enfranchised both African American and White men. The property requirement was not lifted until the 1880’s.

8. 80,000 free Mexican men residing in the territory that the US conquered in the Mexican American War of Purchased for 30 Million
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war– enfranchised those men.
States resisted recognizing those rights
Many Mexican Americans returned to Mexico due to violence, fraud and discrimination

9. How did African American men win– then lose the right to vote
15th Amendment was added to the Constitution in 1870 – 5 years after the Civil War.
Most states in the South made it impossible for them to acquire the right to vote.
Had to take literacy tests and pay poll taxes.
Enacted grandfather clauses…allowed to vote if their grandfather clauses. Led to today’s understanding…if you have done something in the past, you can continue to do so, even if the law changes (i.e., being “grandfathered in”)
Physical and economic threats were common if voting occurred
1910 –fewer than 25% of African American citizens voted.

10. How was suffrage extended to women?
Many abolitionists worked for women’s suffrage as well.
Many women worked to end slavery.
Frederick Douglass -- born a slave– attended a meeting at Seneca Falls that was to support women’s suffrage.
Women attempted, when Congress considered the Civil War amendments to get the right to vote.
Anti- slavery supporters refused to support suffrage for women fearing it would set back the cause of former slaves.
Activist such as Susan B. Anthony argued as citizens women could not be denied the right to vote.
Minor v. Happersett (1875) Supreme Court ruled that not all citizens had the right to vote. Aliens in other states, however, enjoyed the right.

11. 1869 Wyoming gave women the right to vote.
Some members of Congress argued against admittance due to this right.
It is said Wyoming said they would rather stay out of the Union that deny women the right to vote.
During the next 50 year other western states gave women the right to vote.
Eventually the Eastern states joined the movement

13. Pressure for women’s suffrage continued and mounted during WWI, when many women entered the workforce in record numbers.
Suffragists vigorously lobbies Congress and Wilson. Wilson finally withdrew his opposition.
1920 after parades and demonstrations the 19th amendment was passed.

14. Suffrage for Native Americans
Original Constitution mentions Native Americans twice
Article I –exclusion from taxation, under tribal governments
Regulation of commerce with foreign nations, including Indian tribes
Considered outside the jurisdiction of the United States.
1887 Congress enacted the Dawes Act, extending citizenship to Native Americans who were willing to give up their tribal affiliations
1890 Indian Naturalization Act granted citizenship to Native American under an application process similar to immigrants
1924 Congress enacted the Indian Citizenship Act – extending the franchise to “Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States.”
24th Amendment– prohibits poll taxes or any other tax
Voting Rights Act of 1965 banning discrimination against all minorities.

15. Suffrage for 18 Year Olds
Prior to 1971 only Alaska, Georgia, Hawaii and Kentucky allowed persons under 21 to vote
1970 Congress amended the Voting Rights Act to state that no one age 18 or older could be denied the right to vote on the grounds of age
Oregon v. Mitchell The Supreme Court held that Congress could regulate the voting age in national elections, but not state.
1971 the 26th amendment was ratified.