Trends in the History of American Suffrage

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The Framers of the Constitution purposely left the power to set suffrage qualifications to each State. Suffrage means the right to vote. Franchise is synonym for the right to vote. The electorate is all of the people entitled to vote in given election. The right to vote was limited to white males that owned property in America in 1789 when Constitution can into effect. Today, the size of the American electorate is greater than 230 million people. Nearly all citizens at least 18 years of age can qualify to vote. The history of American suffrage since 1789 has been marked by two long term trends. The first growing federal control over suffrage and second the elimination of voting restrictions.

Suffrage was gradually expanded over a period of nearly 200 years. The growth of American electorate has come in five stages. The first stage happen in the early 1800s. Religious, property, and tax qualifications begin to disappear in every State. Struggling to extend voting rights. By mid-century, almost all white adults males could vote in every State. The second stage following the Civil War, in 1870 15th Amendment prohibits voting restrictions based on race or color. It was intended to protect any citizens from being denied the right to vote because of race or color. Still, for another century, African Americans were prohibited for voting and remained the biggest group disenfranchised citizens, or citizens denied the right to vote, in the nation’s population. The third stage happen in 1920 the 19th Amendment removes voting restrictions based on sex. Women did vote in some elections before Wyoming acted in 1869, however notably in New Jersey, where women could and did vote in all elections from 1776 to 1807. The fourth stage happen in 1965...

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...o the constitution in 1791, made the same point regarding importance of newspaper with its guarantee of freedom of the press. The first regularly published newspaper in America, The Boston News letter, appeared in 1704. By 1775, 37 newspapers were being published in the colonies. Today nearly 10,000 newspapers are published in the U.S, including some 1,300 dailies, more than 7,000 weeklies, and 500 semi weeklies.
Since its advent in the 1920, radio has played a major role in informing Americans. Radios began in 1920 yet still exist today. On November 2 of 1920, station KDKA in Pittsburgh went on the air with presidential elections return. Radio remains a major source of news and other political information. The average person hears is hours of radio each week.
Major news magazines and journals of opinion are important sources of political news and content.

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