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When the constitution went into effect in 1789, the right to vote was restricted to ____
white, property owning men.
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Five Stages of Expanding Suffrage
- The first stage of the struggle to extend voting rights came in the early 1800s
- -No State has a religious test for voting acts of 1810
- -Tax payment and property ownership qualification began to end
- The second major effect followed the civil war
- -The 15th amendment was intended to protect any citizen from being denied to vote based on race
- The third stage came with the 19th Amendment
- -It provided that one cannot be denied voting due to sex
- -Wyoming 1869
- A fourth major expansion occured in the 1960s
- -durring this period, federal courts focused on securing votes for African Americans in the electoral process(Voting Rights Act of 1965)
- -The 23rd Amendment, passed in 1961, added voters from D.C. to the electorate
- -The 24th Amendment, ratified in 1964, eliminated the poll tax for any federal election
- The fifth and latest expansion of the electorate came with the adoption of the 26th amendment in 1971.
- -it provides that no state can set the minimum age for voting at more than 18 years of age.
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The Constitution place 5 restrictions on the ability of the State to exercise that power.
- Any person who can vote for representatives in their own state must be permitted to vote for representatives at the federal level
- No state can deprive a person the vote due to race
- No state can deprive a person the vote due to sex.
- No state can require payment of taxes to vote for federal offices
- No state can deprive any person who is at least 18yrs old
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Any person who wants to vote must be able to satisfy qualifications based on three factors
- Citizenship
- Residency- a person must have lived in a given state for a certain extended period of time before they can vote
- Age- the 26th amendment made it that at 18yrs of age you can vote in US.
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States adopted residence requirements for two reasons
- Keep a political machine from bringing in outsiders to affect the election results
- Gives people a chance to settle in and learn more about the candidates and local issues.
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Before 1970, only 4 states had laws in place for voting to be given to citizens under 21.
- Georgia -18- 1943
- Kentucky -18- 1955
- Alaska -19- 1959
- Hawaii -20- 1959
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What was the fastest amendment to get ratified in U.S. history
26th Amendment
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the procedure of voter identification inteded to prevent fraudulent voting
Registration
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All states except this one recuire that most citizens must be registered in order to cast a ballot in elections
North Dakota
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These states do not have requirements to be registered roughly a month before the election date
Maine and Wisconsin
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Typically, a prospective voter must register _________ and voters remain registered unless they move, decreases, commits a serious crime, or is put into a mental institution.
- his/her name
- , age,
- date of birth
- , present address,
- length of residence
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Critics argue that _____ in the early 1900s when voter registration requirements began to spring up.
voting turnouts began to decline
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This act allows citizens to register to vote when they applied or renewed their driver's license
Motor Voter Act
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Literacy and tax payments, although not used anymore, once were a large contribution for suffrage qualification.
Today, no states have suffrage qualification based on literacy
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Which state adopted the first literacy qualification in 1855 followed by Massachusettes in 1857.(Mississippi 1890 understanding clause)
Connecticut
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Which court case banned literacy qualification
Oregon vs Mitchell 1970, 18 states affected
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What were originally popular among those in the southern states as an effort to keeping African Americans out of the voting places
Poll taxes
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What eliminated poll taxes
The 24th amendment outlawed poll taxes and the Supreme court finally eliminated poll taxes across the board in 1966 with Harper vs Virginia Board of Elections
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What was the first action taken to franchise African Americans was in 1870
- 15th Amendment
- The use of the white primary also disenfranchised blacks well into the 2oth century(outlawed Smith vs Allwright 1944)
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The Supreme Court outlawed gerrymandering as a tactic for racial discrimination with ____
Gomillion vs Lightfoot 1960
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The first of the laws passed by Congress to enforce the 15th Amendment was
Civil Rights Act of 1957
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The Civil Rights Act of 1957
- created the U.S. Commission on civil rights
- job was in inquire into claims about voter discrimination
- gave the Attorney General the power to seek federal court order
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Civil Rights act of 1960 added an additional safeduard
proveded the appointment of federal voting referees.
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The Civil Rights Act of 1964
- It outlawed discrimination in severla areas including job related matters
- Forbids the use of any voter registration or literacy requirement in an unfair or discriminatory manner
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Voting Act of 1965
- This act made the 15th amendment a true effective part of constitution
- It called for the attorney general to challenge the constitution of the remaining poll taxes laws
- It also called for the suspension of literacy tests in any state or county where less than half of the electorate had been registered.
- The law gave federal officers the power to register voter and otherwise oversee the conduct of elections in those areas.
- The 1965 law also put into place a preclearance clause on actions taken by the States
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The cases showed that following types of changes came into conflict with the prvision
- location of polls
- deadlines in the electoral process
- boundaries of election districts
- qualifications candidates must meet for office
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The preclearnace clause was setup for 6 states
- alabama
- georgia
- louisianna
- mississippi
- south carolina
- virginia
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What case upheld the voting rights act of 1965
South Carolina vs. Katzenbach
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Sociological Factors of voting
- income/occupation
- education
- gender/age
- religion/ethnic background
- geography
- family and other groups
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Republican States
- Idaho
- Wyoming
- Utah
- Kansas
- Nebraska
- Dakotas
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Although significant in the past, party identification has lost its impact for several reasons
- Weakened Party Conditions
- Split ticket voting
- Independents
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In 2012 an estimated 221 million persons were of voting age but only _____ voted
130 million
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In 2012, ____ people who could vote did not go out to the polls
85 million
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Why dont people vote
- many are convinced that they make no difference
- many are too busy
- cumbersome election procedures
- time zone fallouts
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Compare voters and non voters
- Voters
- -higher level of income/education
- -well intigrated into the community
- -longtime residence
- -strong party identification
- NonVoters
- -younger than 35
- -unmarried
- -live in south and rural areas
- -men are less likely to vote than women
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Voter behavior comes from 3 sources
- the results of elections
- the field of survey research
- studies of political socialization
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