Magruder’s American Government
1st Edition
ISBN: 9780133306996
Textbook solutions
All Solutions
Section 10-1: The History of Voting Rights
Exercise 1
Solution 1
Solution 2
Step 1
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To answer this question, we need to consider why it is important to vote. **Voting is a part of a democratic system** that allows citizens to participate in creating the government. This means that by voting, an individual can influence the desired outcome for policies and selection of political parties that will govern – based on popular consent.
Step 2
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The **African Americans, minorities, and women have fought for the right to vote so they can participate in the creation of the government** because it will ultimately dictate the outcome of their lifestyle. For this reason and to uphold the principle of popular sovereignty, the government nowadays allows most legal age citizens to vote. There are conditions that an individual has to satisfy to have the right to vote – paying taxes, not being convicted of a serious crime, et cetera.
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The Constitution of the United States proclaimed representative democracy and left the right to each State to decide who has the right to vote.
Step 2
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Initially, about 7% of citizens had the right to vote – only adult white men who owned property. Today, almost all adult citizens have the right to vote. This is the result of a struggle for the right to vote that lasted for almost 200 years.
Result
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Citizens sought to exercise their right to vote in order to influence the election of their representatives because they decided on issues important to their lives. Many laws that protected the rights and freedoms of minorities would not have been enacted if minorities had not been given the right to vote.
Exercise 2
Solution 1
Solution 2
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Congress passed the **19th Amendment** in 1919. The Amendment is of great significance because it guarantees all women the right to vote. It was a decades-long and challenging struggle to achieve this significant milestone. Many protests and public agitation took place prior to this Amendment.
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The fact that it took until 1920 for the law to be active just shows how much **women’s rights were neglected** and the cultural difference. Compared to today, when it is normal for both men and women to, for example, wash the dishes. In the past, that wasn’t normal, so the laws supporting women’s liberties didn’t take place either.
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After the adoption of the Constitution, a small number of people had the right to vote in the United States. This right was limited to adult white men who owned property.
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This fact tells us that the American conservative society at the time considered that the votes of women, members of minorities and the poor were not valuable enough and did not deserve to be respected.
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These perceptions pervaded society for decades, until the beginning of the 20th century. In 1920, after the 19th Amendment was adopted, women were finally given the right to vote in all elections.
Exercise 3
Solution 1
Solution 2
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The **15th Amendment** offers voting rights in political elections to everyone. It acted as a stepping stone for voting rights and the fight against discrimination to come closer to the civil rights everyone should have.
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The 15th Amendment took a long time to be enacted because society faced and went through a long period of discrimination issues. If there were no discrimination issues, there wouldn’t be a struggle and the need for laws like this one in the first place. So, the **barriers were all the acts of discrimination towards minorities**. It took more acts for and to support the 15th Amendment for it to become successful in the practice.
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The 15th Amendment was adopted in 1870 and proclaimed that the right to vote could not be denied to any citizen because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
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The amendment was adopted with the intention of giving a voice to male members of the African American population who were usually former slaves.
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15th Amendment has not been effectively respected for many years because Congress has not enacted the necessary acts to ensure its implementation. In practice, the white majority found various ways to prevent members of the African-American population from exercising their right to vote. Some of them are:
– open violence
– pressure through family or employment
– a literacy test adapted to whites
– poll taxes
– gerrymandering
– white primaries
– open violence
– pressure through family or employment
– a literacy test adapted to whites
– poll taxes
– gerrymandering
– white primaries
Exercise 4
Solution 1
Solution 2
Step 1
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The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 to finally ensure the implementation of the 15th Amendment of 1870.
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Given that the implementation of the provisions of the 15th Amendment has been obstructed for so long, the Voting Rights Act contained some very strict provisions.
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One of them is the requirement that all changes to election laws and the enactment of new ones must first be **preclearanced** by the Deptartment of Justice.
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The Voting Rights Act has been challenged before the Supreme Court several times, but until 2013, the Court always upheld its provisions as constitutional. That year, the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a formula for determining which States must seek preclearance of election change laws from the Justice Department.
Result
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Judge Roberts’ opinion, which followed the verdict, stated that the Court understood that in the period when the act was passed, it must have had stricter provisions, but that at the present time they can be harmful.
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President Lyndon Johnson signed the **Voting Rights Act** in 1965. The act forbids discrimination in the voting process in many states following the Civil War.
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Chief **Justice Roberts** was addressing issues of suppression of minorities. In his opinion, some states needed to be applied with heavy and strict requirements, or we can say, employed with extraordinary measures regarding voting rights. He also noted that some previous rules are not proper anymore because they are not harsh enough – discrimination still occurred. Obviously, Roberts didn’t belong to the oppressors but had understanding for the minorities, so perhaps out of that reason, Roberts perceived the problem as extraordinary.
Exercise 5
Solution 1
Solution 2
Result
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In 2013, the Supreme Court rejected the preclearance provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. These provisions were rejected because the Court assessed that since the adoption of the act until 2013, much has been done regarding the right of minorities to vote. The court recognized that many of the old mechanisms that had violated them had been abolished, and that certain provisions of the law were no longer necessary and could even be harmful. The court was of the opinion that government interference in legislation through preclearance provisions was unnecessary and could jeopardize the process itself.
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The **Supreme Court was trying to come up with a solution that could adapt to current circumstances**. Some laws from before could be harmful at a different time and bring more damage than efficiency – the court recognized and acted in accordance with that. Furthermore, the court is aware there is always space for progress and that sometimes the laws need to adapt to the current situation in society. That is why sometimes their decisions change, or new ones are being introduced.
Step 2
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Some of the provisions were rejected because they were outdated, unnecessary, and lost their efficiency. Plus, many of the old solutions have not worked out for the better. It is easily predictable that they will not work in the future unless deemed necessary.
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