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Voting Rights
History of Voting Rights in the United States and African-American Struggle
The ultimate end of all freedom is the enjoyment of a right of free suffrage.
"A WATCHMAN," Maryland Gazette, 1776 (qtd. In Keyssar 8)
Voting is the most important process that allows the general public to communicate or refuse to give consent. During the mid-1770s, an innovative epoch began when Americans challenged the Britain's right to rule the colonies. The American Revolution provided the basis of a public debate on the issue of suffrage and its restrictions. During that time period, voting was considered a privilege that the state granted to the citizens in its own interest. However, it was constantly argued that voting was a natural right that could not be deferred by the state. This argument got tremendous support not only from the small farmers and minorities but influential Revolution leaders Ethan Allan, Thomas Young and Franklin also favored it (Keyssar, "The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United...
To begin with, it is important to discuss the First and Second Reconstructions which were introduced after the Civil War and World War II. The First Reconstruction was unsuccessful in protecting the voting rights of the African-Americans. The reasons of this failure were the catastrophic decisions of judiciary, severe difference of Republicans and Democrats opinions regarding the black suffrage and variable majorities in Congress. However, the Second Reconstruction played a pivotal role in developing and improving the impartiality of minorities. It was because of the positive legal decisions, provision of basic civil rights and unwavering congressional arrays (Kousser, 1999).
However, it was in 1965 that the protracted struggle for voting rights took a crucial turning point. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 had made it feasible for…
References
Carson, "1965: a Decisive Turning Point in the Long Struggle for Voting Rights," Questia, 112 (4), Crisis Publishing Company, July/August 2005, 16+, May 21, 2011, Web, http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5036482449
Kousser, "Colorblind Injustice Minority Voting Rights and the Undoing of the Second Reconstruction," University of North Carolina Press, 1999, May 21, 2011, Web, http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=27795743
Even in the 2008 general election, which had widely-touted voter turnout, a number of eligible people did not vote. Michael McDonald engaged in a complex study, which not only looked at people in the population who were age-eligible for voting, but also looked at the number of people who were not otherwise disenfranchised, such as felons or foreign nationals. He found an overall turnout rate of truly eligible people
S., given the increased pressures made on the political scene to include all citizens the right to express their political and social choices at the polls. Martin Luther King Jr. was in this sense one of the most important figures of the emancipation process because he constantly tried to advance the issue of the right of black people to vote and bring it to the attention of the public through
Fundamental Human Rights and Voting Rights for the Incarcerated One of the fundamental human rights according to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is that of access to the vote. Arguably, the right to have self-determination is critical, and without such a right, equality of treatment is impossible to realize. Politicians will have no incentive to pass laws to protect the rights of groups whose opinion they are
The purpose of the Voting Rights Act President Lyndon Johnson appended her signature to the Voting Rights Act on the 6th of August, 1965, with the aim of doing away with racial prejudice in voting. (Mickey et.al 2017) Prior to the signing of the VRA into law, African Americans were robbed of the right to vote in majority of the Southern states. It is a wonder how this happened and the 15th
Ethnic groups such as Black people and Hispanics, and also women, had to fight for their right to vote. The many fighters who suffered and died during these struggles should be honored by using the rights that they won. It is not a right that should be taken for granted. The news is filled with reports about countries where the right to vote is almost mythical. Women are oppressed, ethnic
In the gender category the most likely to vote is the female voter that has a mild advantage over the male type of voter. This assumption should be analyzed carefully, as often in survey as well as in collected votes some mistakes may appear. The difference between the female and the male voter is very small which indicates that both genders have more or less equal vote intentions and, therefore,