Voting is a gift that Americans have been given. The gift wasn’t free, but clearly Americans treat the gift, the right to vote, as if it were. Voting is not only a right, but a privilege and responsibility. Originally, only white men over the age of 21 were allowed to vote. Today, anyone over the age the age of 18, regardless of their race, disability, religion, sex, or sexual orientation, is allowed to vote. The right for “all” was a long time in the making. The path to full voting rights for all Americans was long and often challenging. During the Reconstruction period after the Civil War, the first changes under the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution were made. These amendments guaranteed that all men would receive equal …show more content…
Well, there are several reasons American’s find it not necessary to do so anymore. First off, many people don’t think their vote will count. A lot of voters believe that the Electoral College vote elects the president, but in fact the popular vote does. It determines which candidate the Electoral College vote endorses for that state. So it becomes clear that every person’s vote counts within your state. Another common excuse is they are just too busy. With family, work, and whatever else is going on in that person’s life, it seems like they just don’t have an extra hour in their day. It’s understandable that we all bite off more than we can chew sometimes, but it’s really no excuse. The least we can do is take a little time out of our schedules to cast in our votes. Also, you will always have those people who simply do not vote because they do not like any of the candidates. It’s easy to say that many politicians are hard to like, but a few of them usually have important issues that they stand for. It’s better to vote for someone who has several good arguments and the chance to win, than to simply not vote at all. Voting registration is always an issue for some folks as well. Many people may find it confusing and a hassle, but it’s really not. If you are making a point to go and update your voter registration every time you move, it’s really not a long, annoying process that some see it as. So why do people continue to make up excuse after excuse after we fought for this right in the first place? It was a long and hard process to get to where we are today. We should not take this right for granted. Ultimately we hurt ourselves by not voting for someone that supports our views. Every vote does
In the latter half of the 18th century, freed slaves possessed the right to vote in all but three states. It was not until the 19th century that states began to pass laws to disenfranchise the black population. In 1850, only 6 out of the 31 states allowed blacks to vote. 1Following the civil war, three reconstruction amendments were passed. The first and second sought to end slavery and guarantee equal rights. The third, the 15th amendment, granted suffrage regardless of color, race, or previous position of servitude.2 The 15th Amendment monumentally changed the structure of American politics as it was no longer the privileged whites who could vote. For some it was as though hell had arrived on earth, but for others, it was freedom singing. However, the song was short lived. While many political cartoons from the period show the freedom that ex-slaves have for voting because of the 15th Amendment, they often neglect to include the fact that many African Americans were coerced into voting a certain way or simply had their rights stripped from them.
The 15th Amendment states that “The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude”. This gave African Americans the right to vote. The amendment seemed to signify the fulfillment of all promises to African Americans. The 15th Amendment is also categorized as one of the three constitutional amendments. In the beginning thirty-seven states ratified the 15th Amendment. The first of these states to ratify the 15th Amendment was Nevada. To disenfranchise African Americans, devices were written into the constitutions of former confederate states. In 1869, when the New Year began, the republicans were anxious to introduce a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the black man’s right to vote. Congress considered the amendment that was proposed for two months. When congress approved a compromise, the amendment did not specifically mention the black man. The struggle for and against ratification hung on what blacks and other political interests would do. The Republican-dominated Congress passed the First Reconstruction Act. This act divided the South into five military districts and outlining how ...
As an American citizen do you think the government should enforce compulsory voting? A country usually needs three things to have a successful compulsory voting system, a national voter registration database, rewards to encourage voters, and punishing non-voters. Should americans be required to vote? There are three reasons why Americans should be required to vote, first, so citizens have interests and political knowledge, second, to increase amount of younger voters and finally, requiring people to vote is the least a citizen can do.
Right of Citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
The United States changed as a nation because of the Civil Rights Movement. Especially, the United States notched up as a more perfect union. The Civil Rights Movement secured voting rights for African-Americans and called for the ending racial segregation, discrimination and segregation. After years of struggle and upheaval, it resulted in the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, under the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson. The purpose of the act was to protect African-Americans’ voting rights and overcome legal barriers that prevented them from exercising their rights to vote. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a historic triumph as it helped the nation acknowledge the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which granted equal voting rights to all but which goal remained unfulfilled for the next several decades. Therefore, The Voting Rights Act of 1965 banned
“Just Vote.” That phrase has been tossed around for years but what if people don’t want to vote? The United States of America is a democracy but many people do not vote. Since World War II, no presidential election has ever involved 65% or more of registered voters. Have you ever thought about the people that don’t vote and why they don’t vote? Here are three reasons why Americans should not be required to vote: Sometimes people can be irresponsible, government should not force us to vote if we truly don’t want to, and we need to respect people’s wishes.
Therefore, when the Senate’s control by the Republicans passed the Thirteenth Amendments and was approved by the Confederate states it became law on December 18th 1865 (Mullane, 1993, p. 293). The Thirteenth Amendment emancipated all U.S. Slaves no matter where they were located and the Southern blacks now had to face the many challenges the Northern blacks has face for many years (Reconstruction and Its Aftermath, n.d., para 1). The new Reconstructed Congress approved the Fourteenth Amendment in which calling for equal protection for slaves under the law. Additionally, the passing of the Fifteenth Amendment had the power to abolish male suffrage, regardless of their race or color, but black women didn’t have the right to vote (Mullane, 1993, p. 293). The passing of the 14th and 15th Amendment was a huge success because it allowed the black males to have a say so in the new Congressional Reconstruction between 1867 and 1869 in which it allow black males the right to vote (Robin D. G. Kelley, 2000, p. 240). There was a major difference between the President Reconstruction plan and the Congressional Reconstruction because the
On February 3, 1870, the 15th Amendment was ratified. This Amendment gives the right to vote to freedmen. This was a huge jump forward in the process of setting whites and blacks equal. However, racist state governments found ways to limit
After the American Civil War, three constitutional amendments passed that favored African-Americans. The Thirteenth Amendment of 1865, “abolished slavery.” The Fourteenth Amendment of 1868, “secured the former slaves their rights as citizens.” And the Fifteenth Amendment of 1870, “gave African-American males the right to vote in elections,” where at the time only white males were able to vote in the United States.
From 1865 to 1877, Americans felt it was time for politics, the economy and society to change, which produced an era of reconstruction. In some areas Reconstruction is seen as a success and in other areas it's seen as a failure. The areas of success in this period were with the Radical Republicans and South Reconstruction. The "Union victory created a golden opportunity [for Radicals] to institutionalize the principle of equal rights for all, refardless of race" (Foner 570). The start of the Radical Reconstruction began with Congress giving black men the right to vote, which was a great success towards giving every citizen equal rights. Then the adoption of the fourteenth and fifteenth ammendment were also a huge step towards equal rights proposed
(Rutherford pg.1) After northern voters rejected Johnson’s policies in the congressional elections in late 1866, Republicans in Congress took firm hold of Reconstruction in the South. The following March, again over Johnson’s veto, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867, which temporarily divided the South into five military districts and outlined how governments based on universal male suffrage were to be organized. The law also required southern states to ratify the 14th Amendment, which broadened the definition of citizenship, granting “equal protection” of the Constitution to former slaves, before they could rejoin the Union. In February 1869, Congress approved the 15th Amendment (adopted in 1870), which guaranteed that a citizen’s right to vote would not be denied “on account of race, color, or previous condition of
Voting is an opportunity given to Americans. As Americans we live in a democracy. Americans live in a democracy that is subjected to vote; a democracy where people have fought for the right to vote on many situations and for the rights of Americans to not be infringed. However, sometimes people just do not vote. Perhaps, reason being is some Americans are not familiar with the background of America and where voting all started. Maybe, some Americans think it all boils down to the electoral votes and their vote simply is not significant. Maybe, it could be that they possibly do not care for politics and do not intend on involving themselves around something they do not understand. There are many reasons why Americans choose to vote and many reasons why Americans choose not to vote.
during Reconstruction African Americans gained very important right through 15th amendment the right to vote
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Have you ever been persuaded into voting? Well, you should have your own say on where your opinion goes. Voting is a right that every citizen in America over the age of 18 can do. Many people have become aware of the fact that the number of voters had reached its all time low. But as the newest voting season comes closer, we should still have a voice and the freedom to decide what we do. Which is, take a step against making America a compulsory voting country, because it proves unnecessary and there are other alternatives than mandatory voting.