The Expansion of the Electorate
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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.