Voting: A Right or Privilege?

1. Voting: A Right or Privilege? GOVT311 Lecture 3

2. Voting • Depend upon it, Sir, it is dangerous to open so fruitful a source of controversy and altercation as would be opened by attempting to alter the qualifications of voters; there will be no end of it…it tends to confound and destroy all distinctions, and prostrate all ranks to one common level. – John Adams, 1776. • Every man having evidence of attachment to, and permanent common interest with, the society, ought to share in its rights and privileges. – George Mason, 1787. • The ultimate end of all freedom is the enjoyment of a right of free suffrage. – Maryland Gazette, 1776.

3. Suffrage in Colonial Times

4. Suffrage in Colonial Times • Property: seven states explicitly set a value or acreage requirement of real estate. The remainder required a minimum personal property requirement (in SC, the payment of taxes was sufficient).

5. Suffrage in Colonial Times • Property provides: • Stake in society • Independence from others • A signal of competence

6. Suffrage in Colonial Times • Residency: Many colonies instituted residency requirements. Some made citizenship of the colony or England a requirement. • People who were explicitly barred: • Servants • Paupers • Women (some New England towns allowed widows) • Non-White (African-Americans and Indians) • Religion • MA: must be member of Congregational Church • Catholics could not vote in 5 states • Jews could not vote in 4 states

7. Suffrage in Colonial Times • Cities and Towns differed from Colony (or State) qualifications • “citizenship” of a town was determined by having commercial affairs in the town (not a residence) • Usually did not have a real estate property requirement • In Virginia, this meant people with property in more than one town could legally vote twice

8. Suffrage in Colonial Times • Trends leading up to the Revolutionary War • Some states broadened suffrage, relaxing religious tests and property requirements • Other states instituted more strict property requirements and excluded particular classes of people (religion and race). • Depending on the locality, 80-90% of white males were eligible (New England, South, and Frontier), 40-50% in mid-Atlantic colonies

9. Suffrage in the U.S. Constitution • Does “we the people” mean universal suffrage (a right)? • Would opening the franchise (a privilege) for a particular group, such as all white males, lead to universal suffrage?

10. Suffrage in the U.S. Constitution • Pro-Property Requirement: • Adams believed granting those without property the right to vote would lead to revolution – open class warfare. • Jefferson agreed that those without property were not independent, but saw the cure as giving property to everyone. • Madison envisioned a future country where property-less would outnumber those with property. Either they would vote to take property, or would be corrupted by those with property.

11. Suffrage in the U.S. Constitution • Anti-Property Requirement: • Benjamin Franklin believed that voting was a natural right. “Today a man owns a jackass worth fifty dollars and he is entitled to vote; but before the next election the jackass dies…Now gentlemen, pray inform me, in whom is the right of suffrage? In the man or in the jackass?” • Thomas Paine changed his mind, and favored universal suffrage after fighting alongside property-less men during the revolutionary war.

12. Suffrage in the U.S. Constitution • The worry: • Once the franchise was expanded, there would be “no end to it” according to Adams.

13. Suffrage in the U.S. Constitution • Alternative: A taxpaying requirement • Taxpayers have a stake in government • Taxpayers have a right to protect themselves against unfair government policies, i.e., “no taxation without representation.” • Consent of the governed – if those who pay taxes cannot vote, they are encouraged to evade taxes.

14. Suffrage in the U.S. Constitution • Alternative: Militia men • Like taxpayers, have a stake in their government • “The franchise would belong to every man who pays his shot and bears his lot.” • A powerful argument that resonates today. Has been a primary way in which the franchise has been expanded through American history. • Some states allowed militia men to vote in the convening of their (state) constitutional conventions. In Maryland, a rebellion ensued when militia men were not allowed to vote.

15. Suffrage in the U.S. Constitution Our Founding Fathers could not agree and punted National voting requirements to the states: Article I, Section 2 The Electors (for the House of Representatives) in each state shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature. Article I, Section 4 Guarantee every State in this Union a Republican form of government

16. What the States Did • GA, NY, and NC reduced their property requirements • VT (only “state” without a government at the start of the revolutionary war) rescinded property and tax requirements • MA increased property requirements • All states dropped restrictions on Catholics and Jews (though in SC, a voter had to “acknowledge there being a God.”) • Localities retained their independence in setting their local requirements – many reduced or did away with property requirements.

17. The 1842 Rhode Island “Dorr War”

18. Long Term • By allowing states to decide the franchise, the Founding Fathers set in motion a system that would have a troubling future, particularly for African-Americans.

19. Suffrage Time-Line • Original voters: White, religious, male, property owners • Early 1800s: property requirement to tax requirement • 1850s: Restricted to citizens, registration requirements • 1870: 15th Amendment, Blacks granted vote • By 1900: Black turnout levels in South are practically zero because of “Jim Crow” laws such as literacy tests, registration laws, secret ballot, etc. • 1920: 19th Amendment, women suffrage • 1930s: restrictions on paupers eased • 1964: 24th Amendment, repeal of poll taxes • 1965: Voting Rights Act restores voting rights to Blacks • 1972: 26th Amendment, persons age 18-20 granted vote • 2002: Help America Vote Act (the mechanics of voting)