1. Chapter 6 Voters and Voter Behavior

2. Section 1: The Right to Vote Objectives: – Summarize the history of voting rights in the United States – Identify and explain constitutional restrictions on the States’ power to set voting qualifications

3. The History of Voting Rights Framers of Constitution – Left the power to suffrage qualifications to each state – Suffrage-right to vote – Franchise-synonym for the right to vote 1789-restricted to white male property owners: 1/15 males voted Today-nearly all citizens who are at least 18 years old

4. Extending Suffrage: The Five Stages 1. religious qualifications – No state has had a religious test since 1810 2. 15 th Amendment- race or color – Still for another century African Americans were barred from voting 3. 19 th Amendment-denial of the right to vote because of sex – 1920 Women’s suffrage: Wyoming allowed women to vote in 1869 4. Voting Rights Act of 1965 – Enforces racial equality at polling places 5. 26 th Amendment-voting age 18 – 1971

5. The Power to Set Voting Qualifications 5 restrictions 1. States allows the same voters to vote in all elections within the State 2. 15 th Amendment: Race or color 3. 19 th Amendment: sex 4. 24 th Amendment: no tax on the selection of the President, VP, or Congress 5. 26 th Amendment: 18 to vote

6. Section 2: Voter Qualifications Objectives: – Identify the universal qualifications for voting in the United States – Explain the other requirements that States use or have used as voting qualifications

7. Universal Requirements 1. Citizenship Residence Age States have some leeway in shaping the details of the first two but they have no discretion with regard to the third one

8. Citizenship Aliens, foreign-born residents who have not become citizens, are generally denied the right to vote in this country – Constitution does not say aliens can’t vote – Example: Pennsylvania constitution says that one must have become a citizen at least one month before an election in order to vote in that State – Section 13. Right of suffrage. All elections shall be free and open, and no power, civil or military, shall at any time interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage.

9. Residence Must be a legal US resident of the State in which he or she wishes to cast a ballot – Some states you must live in for a certain period Most 30 days AZ-29 days, MN-20 days, WI-28 days Why Resident requirements: – 1. to keep a political machine from bringing in enough outsiders to affect the outcome of an election – 2. allow new voters at least some time in which to become familiar with candidates and issues in an upcoming election

10. Age 26 th Amendment-1971 – “The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age” – *states can lower age but not go higher than 18

11. Registration – Procedure of voter identification intended to prevent fraudulent voting. Requirements: – 49 states except ND require voters to be registered in order to cast ballots Controversies: – Some states want to get rid of registration

12. Literacy, Tax Payment Literacy: Today, no State has a suffrage qualification based on voter literacy -Used to try and ban Irish Catholics and African Americans from voting Tax Payment: many states required a poll tax be paid in order to vote – 24 th amendment outlawed it

13. Can You answer these? 1. If you have been employed by another during the last five years, state the nature of your employment and the name or names of such employers or employers and his or their addresses. 2. Give the names of places, respectively, where you have lived during the last five years; and the name or names by which you have been known during the last five years. 3. Are you now or have you ever been affiliated with any group or organization which advocates the overthrow of the United State Government or the government of any State of the United States by unlawful means? 4. Name some of the duties and obligations of citizenship. Do you regard those duties and obligations as having priority over the duties and obligations you owe to any other secular organization when they are in conflict?

14. Persons Denied the Vote Every state does purposely deny the vote to certain persons. – People in mental institutions – Legally found to be mentally incompetent – Convicted of a serious crime Recently most states are allowing convicts to regain the right to vote Some do not allow anyone dishonorably discharged from the armed forces to cast a ballot

15. Section 3: Suffrage and Civil Rights Objectives: – Describe the tactics often used to deny African Americans the right to vote despite the command of the 15 th Amendment. – Understand the significance of the civil rights laws enacted in 1957, 1960, and 1964 – Analyze the provisions and effects of the Voting Rights Act of 1965

16. 15 th Amendment The right to vote can not be denied to any citizen of the US because of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” – Intended to ensure that African American men, nearly all of them former slaves and nearly all of them living in the South, could vote.

17. History African Americans kept from polls – White Supremacists Violence Subtle threats Social pressures – Firing African Americans who registered to vote – Deny family credit at a store Literacy tests Registration laws Gerrymandering-drawing electoral district lines in order to limit the voting strength of a particular group White primary – Only whites could vote for whites

18. Court Rulings Supreme court outlawed – the white primary – Gerrymandering Supreme court could only act if those being discriminated against filed a suit.

19. Early Civil Rights Legislation Congress was moved to act largely on the civil rights movement by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1950s began to enact civil rights laws to go with the 15 th amendment

20. Civil Rights Act of 1957; created the US Commission on Civil Rights – Inquire into claims of voter discrimination – Attorney General the power to seek federal court orders to prevent interference with any person’s right to vote in any federal election The Civil Rights Act of 1960; added an additional safeguard – Appointment of federal voting referees Serve anywhere a federal court found discrimination\ Help qualified persons to register and vote Acts of 1957-1960

21. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 Outlaws discrimination in several areas – Job related matters Forbids the use of any voter registration or literacy requirement in an unfair or discriminatory manner Emphasized the use of federal court orders called injunctions – Court order that either compels or restrains the performance of some act by a private individual or public official

22. Selma Dr. King mounted a voter registration drive in that city in early 1965 – Focus national attention on African American voting rights – Insults and violence by white civilians, city and county police, and State troopers – 3 civil rights workers were murdered and many beaten as they marched to the Capitol http://www.history.com/topics/black- history/selma-montgomery-march

23. Voting Rights Act of 1965 Made the 15 th Amendment – Applied to all elections held anywhere in the country, State, local and federal – Directed the AG to challenge the remaining State poll-tax laws – Suspended the use of any literacy test or similar device in any state or county where less than half of the voters were registered or had voted in the 64 elections

24. Preclearance Voting Rights Act of 1965 imposed another restriction – No new election laws, and no changes in existing election laws, could go into effect in any of those States unless first approved or given preclearance by the department of Justice. Only those new or revised laws that do not dilute the voting rights of minority groups can survive the preclearance process and take effect

25. Laws most likely to run afoul of the preclearance requirement are those that make these kinds of changes – The location of polling places – The boundaries of election districts – The deadlines in the election process – A shift from ward or district election to at-large elections – The qualifications candidates must meet in order to run for office

26. Amendments to the Act 1970-extended the law for another 5 years – No State could use literacy as the basis for any voting requirement 1975-extended for 7 years – 5 year ban on literacy made permeant 1982-extended for 25 years 1992- – Minority provisions extended to communities with a minority language population of 10,000 or more

27. Section 4: Voter Behavior Objectives: – Examine the problem of nonvoting in this country – Identify those people who typically do not vote – Examine the behavior of those who vote and those who do not vote – Understand the sociological and psychological factors that affect voting and voter behavior

28. Nonvoting The word idiot came to our language from the Greek – Citizens who did not vote or otherwise take part in public life Election day 2012 – 221 million persons of voting age – 130 million voted-58%

29. Why People Do Not Vote “Cannot-Voters” 2012 elections – 110 million who did not vote, 20 million are resident aliens – 2 to 3 million voters were sick, ill or physically disabled – 1 to 2 million were traveling suddenly and couldn’t vote – 2 million adults in jail – 100,000- religious beliefs

30. Actual Nonvoters – 85 million did not vote To busy to vote Political efficacy-lack any feeling of influence or effectiveness in politics Comparing Voters and Nonvoters Nonvoters – Likely to be under 35, unmarried and unskilled – More live in the south and rural areas – Men are less likely to vote than women Voters – High sense of political efficacy – Greater the competition between candidates

31. Voters and Voting Behavior Studying Voting Behavior – Three sources The results of particular elections The field of survey research – Polling population Studies of political socialization – Process by which people gain their political attitudes and opinions

32. Sociological Factors – College graduates-vote Republican and persons over 50 – African Americans-vote Democrats and labor unions Income and Occupation Education Gender, Age Religion, Ethnic Background Geography Family and other groups

33. Psychological Factors Voters perceptions of politics: how they see and react to the parties, the candidates, and the issues in an election Party Identification – Straight ticket voting-one party – Split ticket voting-more than one party – Independent- no party Candidates and Issues – Party identification Candidate and issues in an election