Transcript The Expansion of the Electorate

American Government
Chapter 6, Section 1
Definition:
All the people eligible
to vote (in that district)
Examples:
*225 million
Americans
*3.75 million
Wisconsinites
Added Info:
The electorate has
expanded over time as
African-Americans and
Women have been granted
suffrage
Picture:
Chapter 6, Section 1
Definition:
The right to vote
Examples:
•15th amendment
•Civil Rights movement
•26th amendment
•Voter ID Law19th
amendment
Added Info:
Over times many groups
have fought for suffrage to
overcome their
disenfranchisement
Picture:
 Insert five stages image

When the Constitution first went into
effect in 1789, the right to vote was
generally restricted to property-owning
Protestant white males.


Only about 1 in 15 adults could
actually vote.
The first stage in the expansion of the
vote occurred in the early 1800s.
Religious requirements to voting
were removed.
 No State has had a religious test to
voting since 1810.
 During the 1820’s each State began to
remove property qualifications.
 By 1850, nearly all white adult males
could vote.

 The Civil War (1861-1865)
expanded the electorate even
further.
 The Emancipation Proclamation
of 1863 freed slaves in the South,
however they still could not vote.
 In 1870, the 15th amendment was
ratified and was intended to
protect any citizen from being
denied the right to vote because
of race or color.
 Still, African-Americans were
systematically denied the right
to vote for the next century.
Chapter 6, Section 1
Definition:
Laws developed to
prevent Blacks from
voting
Examples:
•Literacy Test
•Poll Tax
•Grandfather clause
•Voter ID Law?
Added Info:
Especially in the Southern
States, officially ended
with the 1964 Civil Rights
act
Picture:
 Women were denied the
right to vote until the
passage of the 19th
amendment in 1920.
 Pioneers for the women’s
right to vote included
Susan B. Anthony,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
and Ida Wells.
 The fight for the women’s
right to vote was an
ongoing fight since the
beginning of our country.
 The Civil Rights Movement of
the 1950s and 1960s put pressure
on the federal government to
remove Jim Crow Laws and truly
give suffrage to all people.
 The Voting Rights Act of 1965
removed poll taxes and literacy
tests and gave the Attorney
General the power to
scrutinize any State’s voting
practices.
 The 24th amendment made it
unconstitutional to have a poll
tax.
 Up until 1971, States required
people to be at least 21 years
old to vote.
 The Vietnam War and draft
put pressure on the Federal
government to lower the
voting age to 18.
 People used the argument
“old enough to fight, old
enough to vote.”
 The 26th amendment (1971)
required that States could not
set a minimum age for voting
lower than 18 years old.