Voters & Voter Behavior

1. Voters & Voter Behavior

2. Essential Ideas • Voting Rights have increased throughout American History • States decide who can vote • Civil Rights Laws guaranteed the vote to more Americans • EVERY VOTE COUNTS!

3. Basic Understandings • Why some people don’t vote • What affects how people vote

4. Vocabulary Franchise = Suffrage = Right to Vote Disenfranchise = To not allow someone to vote Electorate – Those who are eligible to vote

5. For Your Information • The Constitution says very little about the right to vote. • The Constitution allows the states to decide who can vote. • Early in our history, States made rules that stopped many people from voting. • To protect the right to vote, the Federal government became involved.

6. Democracy requires the active participation of citizens in their own governance. Americans believe voting is important. They see it as: • A civic duty • Key to maintaining popular control of government • The very essence of democracy • many Americans fought hard to win their right to suffrage

7. Political Apathy • It has been true since 18 year olds were given the vote, that young people are less likely to vote than citizens of other age groups. • Often turned off by politics or lacking a sense that their participation really matters, young people tend to stay away from the polls.

8. Americans tend not to vote. • Only 70 to 75 percent of the voting-age population is registered to vote • About 50 percent vote in Presidential elections • About 33 percent vote in midterm elections • Even fewer vote in off-year/mid term, special, and primary elections. Americans vote less now than they have in the past.

10. Get the Youth Vote In 2004, different political groups attempted to leverage youth-oriented media and popular culture to mobilize the youth vote. Such groups included: • Rock the Vote • Vote for Change • Redeem the Vote • Vote or Die

11. Despite the ridicule leveled at the “Vote or Die” t-shirts (South Park) and the common perception that these mobilization efforts failed, 18-24 year old voting actually increased 11 percent from 2000 to 2004.

12. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG_IG-S1bfE Stossel in Classroom Vote or Die

13. Forms of political participation Some forms of political participation are controlled by the government or otherwise bring citizens’ views into direct contact with political officials. These include: • Voting • Contacting political officials • Signing petitions Some forms of political participation are more citizen controlled. Examples of such grassroots participation include: • Attending meetings • Joining organizations • Protesting • Volunteering in campaigns

15. Professional Participation Sometimes citizens participate in politics in professional ways: Citizens lobby to persuade legislators to pass laws. They engage in public relations to influence the marketplace of ideas. They engage in litigation to obtain justice in a court of law.

16. Voters, Suffrage and Civil Rights6-1 Constitution and the Right to Vote: The Constitution left the power to set suffrage/franchise (the right to vote) qualifications up to each state. The potential voting population is called the electorate.

17. 1789 – Only white, Protestant, males, over age 21, who owned property could vote. Stages of struggle to extend Voting –

18. Stages of struggle to extend Voting – Early 1800’s Post War of 1812– Banned religious, property ownership, and tax payment qualifications. White, males, over age 21 could vote.

19. Stages of struggle to extend Voting – 1850 – Nearly all white adult males over age 21 could vote.

20. Stages of struggle to extend Voting – 1870– 15th Amendment – Intended to protect any citizen from being denied the right to vote because of race or color. All men over 21 could effectively vote.

21. Stages of struggle to extend Voting – 1920 – 19th Amendment – Prohibited the denial of the right to vote because of gender. All men and women over 21 could vote.

22. Stages of struggle to extend Voting – • Voting Rights Act of 1965 – • As well as other Civil Rights Acts secured racial equality in voting.

23. Stages of struggle to extend Voting – 1971 – 26th Amendment – Age to vote is 18.

24. 4 Limits by Federal Law to Ensure Voting Rights to All – #1 – No state can deprive a person of the right to vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude” The 15th Amendment 1870 or on account of their sex The 19th Amendment 1920.

25. 4 Limits by Federal Law to Ensure Voting Rights to All – • #2 – • No state can require the payment of any tax (poll tax) as a condition for taking part in the nomination or election of any federal officeholder. • The 24th Amendment

26. 4 Limits by Federal Law to Ensure Voting Rights to All – #3 – No state can deprive any person who is at least 18 years of age the right to vote due to age. The 26th Amendment

27. 4 Limits by Federal Law to Ensure Voting Rights to All – #4 – All people are protected under the 14th Amendment – Equal Protection Clause. 1868

28. Voter Qualifications 6-2 • Citizenship All states require voters to be citizens.

29. Voter Qualifications • Residence Voters must reside (live) in the place where they vote. Some states require a minimum time period of residence before one can vote. • This avoids fraud & • Allows voters time to become familiar with local issues and candidates.

30. Voter Qualifications • Residence Most states require an average of 30 days in residence prior to voting.

31. Voter Qualifications • Age The 26th Amendment (1971) sets the minimum voting age at 18.

32. Voter Qualifications • Registration Forty-nine states require voters to register with local election officials. The list of eligible voters cuts down on fraud. Most states have permanent registration, but you can change your data when you move or wish to affiliate yourself with another political party.

33. To make it easier to register to vote, in 1995, President Bill Clinton signed the “Motor Voter Law.” This law ensures registration is as easy as possible. When you fill out the paper work to get your driver’s license, you fill out the portion which asks if you would like to register to vote.

34. American voters in most states are required to register to vote well in advance of election day. This requirement, at one time a reform against voter fraud and political corruption, decreases voter turnout particularly among those with lower income and especially less education.

36. In addition, in many states, registered voters are “purged” from election lists for failing to vote in a given election or for other reasons. For all of our purported commitment to voting as a civic duty, these and other practices (like holding elections on Tuesdays when most people work) predictably depress political participation.

37. Voter Qualifications • Literacy Outlawed today Prior to 1970, states required the ability to read and write (literacy) in order to vote. They often created unfair tests to keep minorities from voting. The Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1970 ended this.

38. Voter Qualifications • Poll Tax Outlawed today The 24th amendment and the Supreme Court outlawed the tax to vote in the 1960’s. It was another way to stop minorities from voting.

39. Voter Qualifications • Mental Competence All states require this. Persons who reside in Mental Institutions may not vote. • No Criminal Record Convicted Felons are not permitted to vote.

40. Suffrage & Civil Rights • 6-3 • 15th Amendment: (1870) the right to vote cannot be denied “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” This was not truly enforced for 90 years. • The purpose of the amendment was to grant suffrage to the newly freed slaves known as “freedmen.” • White supremacists in the South devised many ways to prevent African Americans from voting. Blacks were kept from voting by: • Violence • Literacy Tests • Poll taxes • Gerrymandering (The drawing up of lines for electoral districts to give an unfair advantage to one group virtually disenfranchising another group.)

41. Between the 1950’s and the 1970’s, Congress passed a number of civil rights bills into law designed to end the disenfranchisement of African Americans.

42. Civil Rights Act of 1957: Set up U.S. Civil Rights Commission to inquire into claims of voter discrimination and gave the Attorney General the power to seek injunctions (federal court orders) to prevent interference with any qualified person’s right to vote.

43. Civil Rights Act of 1960: Provided for appointment of federal voting referees to serve wherever a federal court found voter discrimination. Referees could be sent anywhere in the nation.

44. Civil Rights Act of 1964: The act outlawed job discrimination. It also forbids the use of any registration requirement in an unfair or discriminatory manner and relied on injunctions for enforcement.

45. Voting Rights Act of 1965: Made the 15th Amendment apply to ALL elections and gave federal officers the right to oversee elections. The law has been extended 3 times, expanding its coverage to states and counties outside the South and to “language minorities” such as Hispanics, Native Americans, Asian Americans and Alaskan Natives.

46. Voting Rights Act Amendments • 1970 –Extended the 1965 law for 5 more years & suspended the use of literacy tests. • 1975 - Extended the 1965 law for 7 more years, outlawed the use of literacy tests & provided ballot in minority languages. • 1982- Extended the 1965 law for 25 more years. • 1992 – Revised requirement for ballot in minority languages.

47. NonVoting6-4 Although most Americans believe in Democracy, millions of eligible people fail to vote. Some voters do not mark their entire ballot – they do not vote for all issues or candidates on the ballot. Ballot Fatigue is often mentioned. This means that further down along the ballot, the voter loses interest and stops.

48. NonVoting6-4 Lack of Political Efficacy - Some voters do not think their vote is important. Level of Election – Voters who show an interest and vote in a national/federal election often do not vote in non presidential years. Fewer people vote in State level (Governor) elections. Local elections (County, Town, Village, City) often have very low voter turnout.

49. EVERY VOTE COUNTS!!!! Many local elections are won or lost by 2-3 votes.

50. Weather • Many voters do not vote because of the weather. It is said often Democrats only vote on sunny days – rain scares away voters.