As citizens of modern America, the right to vote appears to be intrinsic in our roles as humans. Regardless of race, class, gender, or religion, we are encouraged and privileged to participate in the act of shaping collective political opinions. However, within this collective thought process, there is a consciousness of recent voting restrictions that shaped not just political, but also cultural opinions and customs. We’ve heard of the women’s suffrage movement; we know vaguely of lunch-counter sit-ins that pushed for ‘the colored vote;’ but these are merely recent changes. The history of voting rights in this country reveals deeply ingrained values, social standards, and prejudices.
Property Requirement: Beginning in 1776, the ‘right to vote’ was deemed legally supported (and mandated). However, this right was reserved almost exclusively for white, property-owning men, most of whom were also expected to be Protestant. We know, looking back, that these requirements excluded an enormous margin of the American society. A 1792 New Hampshire legislative decision eliminated the pre-voting requisite to own property. Other states would eventually follow suit, however slowly, and the issue would only be completely resolved after decades of legislated work. This property requirement, though, raises the idea that ownership of material goods supersedes the quality of a person’s opinion, his knowledge of ballot questions, or his vision for what kind of America he wants to shape. As we’ll see, this standard persists throughout the history of voting rights and into the country’s current standards of what legitimizes having a vote.
African Americans: Returning to the concrete timeline of voting rights in this country, we see that nearly one hundred years after white men were given their right to vote (and just four years after the Civil War’s end), African American men were allowed the right to vote (in 1869, ratified in 1870). Though this sounds promising and progressive, one must ask how this large portion of the population could consider the ballot questions when most of them had been forbidden to learn to read. Moreover, in the late 1880s-1890s, there was a law passed which required African American men to take literacy tests prior to voting—a tactic designed to prevent African American votes.
Native Americans: Similarly, in 1890, the ‘Indian Naturalization Act’ granted citizenship to Native Americans, though it neither granted them the right to vote, nor did it provide immediate citizenship. Rather, it required the Native Americans to apply for this citizenship, an arduous, bureaucratic process that did not guarantee acceptance. It wouldn’t be until 1924, thirty-four years later, that Native Americans would be given intrinsic American citizenship and the right to vote, though only through state-approved legislation. Only by 1948, almost sixty years after the first ‘Indian Naturalization Act,’ would the last state remove its restrictions on Native American voting.
Women: Having been seen as unfit to offer political perspectives, hold powerful jobs, or ask for equal opportunities to men, women too were barred from voting until deep into the 20th Century. During the era of women’s suffrage, an organization called the ‘National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage’ published pamphlets to encourage men to vote against the suffrage bill. One pamphlet stated that one should vote against the bill “because it is unwise to risk the good we already have for the evil which may occur.” In the same pamphlet, there was a section calling attention to “Housewives!” in which women were told things like: “You do not need a ballot to clean out your sink spout… Control of the temper makes a happier home than control of elections… Good cooking lessens alcoholic craving quicker than a vote…” The closing remark at the bottom of this pamphlet states that “there is… no method known by which mud-stained reputations may be cleansed after bitter political campaigns.” By 1920, women’s suffrage was ratified.
Chinese Americans: In 1943, the ‘Chinese Exclusion Act’ was repealed, allowing Chinese immigrants to vote. Before this point, Chinese Americans were considered “not white enough” to be considered true American citizens. (This type of racial discrimination carried over to other groups of “non-white” Americans.)
Minors: Almost thirty years later, in 1971, the age limit for voting was lowered to include eighteen year-old Americans. Some still believe this to be too young, while other Americans wish to lower it even more.
Americans in Prison: Soon after this decision to include eighteen year-olds, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states have the right to deny felons their right to vote (in the case of Richardson v. Ramirez). This subcategory of voting prohibition has recently been overturned in certain states on the condition that once a criminal is on parole or probation, he or she is returned to “common citizen” rights.
Illiterate Americans: A year later, in 1975, the ‘Voting Rights Act’ added to this legislation that states could no longer demand voters to take literacy tests, and that voting centers must instead assist illiterate voters.
Americans with Disabilities: Though Americans with disabilities were not targeted as a group prohibited from voting, the lack of access made it impossible for many disabled Americans to engage in this (otherwise permitted) right. However, in 1990, Congress passed the ‘Americans with Disabilities Act’ which requires voting centers to provide entrance, transportation, and voting assistance to disabled voters, ascertaining that disabled Americans have no problems voting.
Though these are the most recent notable changes, they are no less important in the development of American voting practices. What do these changes, their order, and the time it took to achieve them say about this nation, its values, and its involvement in civil rights? How do these ideas bleed into today’s voting system, campaign standards, and targeted voting audiences? What will be the next voting law that, to many, seems unnecessary, though one day will be looked back upon with the shock of progress?
