Improving voter inclusion in the United States through constitutional amendment
“It is wrong deadly wrong, to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country”. (1Johnson, Lyndon B. “Voting Rights Act Address” Washington, D.C. March 15, 1965. Speech. Via NYT.com)
In the modern era the concept of voting in the United States appears straight forward. It is a hallmark institution that has been with the country seemingly unchanged since its founding. It is even hard to imagine a United States in which most people could not vote for their leaders. But for the majority of the United States existence that is how the voting system has operated. The system of inclusive voting we know today wasn’t fully established until 1971 with …show more content…
The act wasn’t passed until 1965 and it was created to finally enforce the language of the 15th amendment against states and individuals who had been using poll taxes and literacy tests to keep African Americans and others out of the voting system. Or look at the very recent example of voter Id law. Voter ID laws are a current trend in some states that usually require an extremely high level of identification. Credentials such as a driver’s licenses, Passports, or birth certificates may be required for an individual to vote in an election. Depending on the state many of these new laws are included in a larger block of laws that remove convinces such as same day registration for voting, mail in voting, and the option of casting a provisional ballot all under the creed of preventing voter fraud 4. This may seem like a just set of laws to help counter the problem of voter fraud but in reality these laws are once again disproportionally effecting historically disenfranchised groups such as minorities, immigrants, and the poor, because some members of these groups may not have easy access to something like a passport or a drivers license. Once again the state systems are making an attempt to bar a segment of their populations from voting. In a strong republic these tactics of manipulation cannot be allowed to
“It is wrong deadly wrong, to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country”. (1Johnson, Lyndon B. “Voting Rights Act Address” Washington, D.C. March 15, 1965. Speech. Via NYT.com)
In the modern era the concept of voting in the United States appears straight forward. It is a hallmark institution that has been with the country seemingly unchanged since its founding. It is even hard to imagine a United States in which most people could not vote for their leaders. But for the majority of the United States existence that is how the voting system has operated. The system of inclusive voting we know today wasn’t fully established until 1971 with …show more content…
The act wasn’t passed until 1965 and it was created to finally enforce the language of the 15th amendment against states and individuals who had been using poll taxes and literacy tests to keep African Americans and others out of the voting system. Or look at the very recent example of voter Id law. Voter ID laws are a current trend in some states that usually require an extremely high level of identification. Credentials such as a driver’s licenses, Passports, or birth certificates may be required for an individual to vote in an election. Depending on the state many of these new laws are included in a larger block of laws that remove convinces such as same day registration for voting, mail in voting, and the option of casting a provisional ballot all under the creed of preventing voter fraud 4. This may seem like a just set of laws to help counter the problem of voter fraud but in reality these laws are once again disproportionally effecting historically disenfranchised groups such as minorities, immigrants, and the poor, because some members of these groups may not have easy access to something like a passport or a drivers license. Once again the state systems are making an attempt to bar a segment of their populations from voting. In a strong republic these tactics of manipulation cannot be allowed to