1. Voter Behavior The Timeline
Chapter 6
Voter Behavior The Timeline

2. 1789
white, male, property owner

3. 1810
religious tests end

4.
state adopt literacy qualifications – to prevent Catholics, Irish, African Americans from voting, no property ownership requirements

5. 1869
Wyoming gave women the right to vote

6. 1870
15th Amendment – protects any citizen from being denied the right to vote because of race or color

7. 1889
11 south states adopt a poll tax to discourage African Americans from voting

8. 1895
Grandfather clause – could vote without a literacy test if your father/grandfather voted without one

9. 1900’s
voter registration is a common state feature

10. 1920
 19th Amendment – prohibited the denial of the right to vote because of sex

11. 1943
Georgia allows 18 year olds to vote (WWII)

12. 1944
Smith v. Allwright – political parties could not exclude people from primary elections

13. 1957
Civil Rights Act of set up Civil Rights Commission who investigate voter discrimination

14. Gomillion v. Lightfoot – gerrymandering is outlawed when used for purposes of racial discrimination
1960

15. 1960
Civil Rights Act of 1960 – allowed for voter referees to help discriminated voters to vote

16. 1964
Civil Rights Act of 1964 – forbids voter registration or literacy tests in unfair ways

17. 1964
 24th Amendment – outlawed poll taxes in all general elections

18. 1965
Voting Rights Act of 1965: challenged the remaining poll tax laws in certain states

19. 1966
Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Virginia still using poll tax

20. 1966
Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections – Supreme Court case that said Virginia poll
tax violates
14th Amendment

21. 1970
Voting Rights Act Amendment – banned any requirement of more than 30 days residency to vote in Presidential election and banned literacy tests

22. 1971
26th Amendment – no state may set the minimum age for voting in any election at more than 18 (Vietnam) only 4 states had an age lower than 21
until this
amendment

23. 1972
58% of year olds registered to vote, 48.4% voted

24. 1980
first gender gap appeared, women voted Democrat by 5-10% margin

25. Motor Voter Laws for all states but North Dakota where you must be able to register to vote when getting a drivers license
1995

26. 2000
40.5% of year olds registered to vote, only 28.4% voted

27. 2000
over 80,000,000 Americans who could have voted in the presidential election DID NOT

28. 2004
221,285,099 voting age population; 202,746,417 eligible (due to non-citizen parole/felon, mentally incompetent, dishonorably discharged); 174,800,000 registered; only 123,535,883 voted

29. 2008
 About 131 million people reported voting in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, an increase of 5 million from 2004

30. 2008
 2 million more black voters, 2 million more Hispanic voters and about 600,000 more Asian voters, while the number of non-Hispanic white voters remained statistically unchanged.

31. 2012 ?