Chapter 18 Voting & Elections

LESSON 1

Expanding Voting Rights

ESSENTIAL QUESTION Who should have the right

Voting Limitations in Early America

An election is an orderly process for making group decisions. Free and fair elections
are the hallmark of democracy. Voting is making a choice among alternatives in an
election.
Like other rights, the right to vote is not absolute but subject to regulations and
restrictions. During periods of American history, law, custom, and even violence have
prevented certain groups of people from voting.
Before the American Revolution, the colonies placed many restrictions on who had the
right to vote. Women and most African Americans were not allowed to vote; neither were
white males who did not own property or pay taxes. In some colonies, only members of
the dominant religious group could vote.
As a result, only about five or six percent of the adult population was eligible to vote.
These restrictions existed because educated white men of the time believed that voting
was best left to wealthy, white, property-owning males, whom they assumed would
make wiser choices. As John Jay, who served on the U.S. Supreme Court as the first
chief justice of the United States, put it: The people who own the country ought to
govern it.
After the Constitution was adopted, the states were allowed to set the time, place, and
manner of elections. Each state could have its own rules about who could vote in
national elections as long as these rules did not violate the U.S. Constitution. Despite
having the power to do so, Congress did not make many laws regulating elections until
after the Civil War.
During the first half of the 1800s, state legislatures gradually abolished property
requirements and religious restrictions for voting. By the mid-1800s, the country

achieved nearly universal white adult male suffrage, or the right to vote. Still, the vast
majority of African Americans and all women could not vote.

African American Suffrage

When the Constitution went into effect in 1789, African Americans, both enslaved and
free, made up about 20 percent of the U.S. population. Yet enslaved persons were not
permitted to vote anywhere, and free African Americans who were allowed to vote could
do so in only a few states.
The Fifteenth Amendment
The Fifteenth Amendment was ratified in 1870. The amendment provided that no
state could deprive any citizen of the right to vote on account of race, color, or previous
condition of servitude. This amendment marked the first time that the U.S. Constitution
dictated rules to the states about who they must allow to vote.
Grandfather Clause
Political leaders in Southern states set up a number of roadblocks
to disenfranchise and discourage the participation of African American vote
One such practice was the grandfather clause. It was incorporated in the constitutions
of some Southern states. The grandfather clause provided that only voters whose
grandfathers had voted before 1867 were eligible to vote without paying a certain tax or
passing a literacy test.

The Literacy Test and Poll Tax

Until the 1960s, many states required citizens to pass a literacy test to qualify to vote.
In many cases, white voters were judged literate if they could write their names, but
African American voters were often required to do much more.
Another device that was designed to discourage African American suffrage was the poll
tax. Usually amounting to a dollar or two, citizens had to pay a poll tax before they
could vote. The poll tax had to be paid not only for the current year but also for previous
unpaid years. It was a financial burden for poor people of all ethnic and racial
backgrounds.
In 1964, the Twenty-fourth Amendment outlawed the poll tax in national elections. The
use of the poll tax in state elections was not eliminated until a 1966 Supreme Court
decision. (Harper v. Virginia Board of Election)

The Voting Rights Acts

Despite gains, many discriminatory practices still prevented African Americans from
voting into the mid-twentieth century, particularly in the South. One key pillar of the civil
rights movement of the 1960s was the fight for voting laws that would prohibit this
discrimination. With the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the federal
government took new steps to directly regulate state-controlled election procedures.
In 1960 only 29 percent of all African Americans in the South were registered. By 2000,
the figure had risen to more than 65 percent.
Until 2013, the Voting Rights Acts still placed special regulations on states with a
history of voter discrimination. Those states had to ask for permission from the federal
government before changing any of their voting laws. However, in a 2013 case
called Shelby Co. v. Holder, the Supreme Court ruled that the formula Congress used to
decide which states had to follow these special regulations was unconstitutional
because the formula was based on discrimination in place over 40 years ago.
Suffrage for Women and Youth

It was not until the twentieth century that both universal adult woman suffrage and 18- to
21-year-old suffrage were achieved.
Woman Suffrage
During World War I, women suffragists continued the fight for the right to vote. In 1917
the National Womens Party, led by its founder Alice Paul, began picketing outside the
White House and distributing leaflets. One such leaflet read:
We women of America tell you that America is not a democracy. Twenty million women
are denied the right to vote . Tell our government that it must liberate its people.
from leaflet written by Alice Paul, 1917
Not until after World War I, when the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified, was woman
suffrage put into effect nationwide. While the struggle to get the vote was significant,
once the Nineteenth Amendment passed, women did not face the cultural or legal
barriers to voting that many African Americans were forced to hurdle well into the midtwentieth century.

Suffrage for 18- to 21-Year-Olds

For many years, the minimum voting age in most states was 21. In the 1960s, many
young Americans were fighting in Vietnam, and many others became involved in
protests and politics. They also started a movement to lower the voting age to 18. The
basic argument was that if individuals were old enough to be drafted and fight for their
country, they were old enough to vote. The Twenty-sixth Amendment, which was
ratified in 1971, ended this debate, lowering the voting age to 18 in every state.

LESSON 2
Influences on Voters
The Structure of Elections
Both federal and state guidelines structure the U.S. electoral system. Election cycles,
term limits for elected officials, and ballot issues all influence voter choices at the polls
Election Cycles
The Constitution dictates the length of the terms of members of Congress, the
president, and the vice president. Members of the House of Representatives serve twoyear terms. Senators have a six-year term and the president serves a four-year term.
Every four years, we have a presidential election. Congressional elections held in the
middle of a presidents term are called midterm elections.
The Constitution says that states may prescribe the time, place, and manner of
elections, but Congress may, at any time, make or alter those regulations. Since 1845,
Election Day has been on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
Term Limits
The Twenty-second Amendment limits a president to two terms. The Constitution
does not limit the number of terms a member of Congress can serve. There have been
proposals to limit their terms, but efforts to amend the Constitution to impose term limits
have failed.
On the state and local level, governors in 36 states are limited in the number of terms
they may serve; in some states, legislators and a few locally elected officials also face
term limits. In some cases, officials may serve more than one term if the terms are not
consecutive.

Ballot Questions
In a legislative referendum, the legislature refers a measure to the voters for their
approval. In a popular referendum, voters gather signatures to put specific laws
passed by the legislature on the ballot. Citizens can vote to approve or repeal the laws.
In an initiative, voters who secure enough signatures can place their own proposed
laws or state constitutional amendments on the ballot. If successful, initiatives can either
force a state legislature to consider an issue or can bypass the legislature completely. In
various states, voters have approved or rejected bans on abortion, same-sex marriage,
tax increases, and collective bargaining by public employee unions via the initiative or
referendum process.
Voters Election Choices
There are four major factors that tend to drive voters election choices. They are the
personal background of the voter, the degree of loyalty to a political party, issues in the
campaign, and the voters perception of the candidates.
Personal Background
Voters personal backgrounds affect their decisions. A persons background includes
such things as family, age, education, religion, occupation, income level, where they
live, and general outlook on life.
People who live in cities may be more likely to vote for a candidate who wants to invest
in public transportation than people who live in more rural areas. As the U.S.
population shifts to become more urban and suburban, this could affect voting
patterns.
Individuals may have multiple traits that align them with different positions on issues or
candidates, which make predicting how they would vote difficult. These crosspressured voters face conflicting pressures from different elements of their identity
religion, ethnicity, income level, or peer group.

Party Loyalty
Another influence on voters decisions is their loyaltyor lack of itto one of the
political parties. The majority of American voters consider themselves either
Republicans or Democrats, and most vote for their partys candidates.
Strong party voters are those who select their partys candidates regardless of the
specific issues or candidates in any given election. They typically vote a straight party
ticket, meaning that they choose all candidates affiliated with their party on the ballot.

Unlike strong party voters, weak party voters are more likely to switch their votes based
on the issues or candidates at hand. People who choose not to identify with a specific
party are known as independent voters. In the 2008 election, roughly 40 percent of the
electorate was either independent or weak party voters. These voters factor importantly
in presidential elections because strong party voters from both major parties tend to
balance each other out. Because of this, candidates often try to tailor their messages to
attract independent voters.
Candidates do their best to portray an image they believe voters value. Candidates
want to appear to be strong and trustworthy leaders. At the same time, they may want
their opponents to appear weak or otherwise unprepared for the job. Campaigns, aided
by political parties and interest groups, help candidates cultivate their messages and
images to appeal to potential voters.
Issues

Due to advances in education and access to new media technology, todays voters have
more opportunities to become better informed about a candidates stance on issues
than the voters of earlier years. Despite this, many voters are still not informed about all
of the issues in a campaign. Voters are typically most concerned with issues that
directly affect them. In the past, important issues have included Social Security, health
care, taxes, education, affirmative action, abortion, gun rights, and the environment.
Voter Participation
The percentage of Americans voting in presidential elections declined from about 69
percent in 1964 to 56 percent in 2012. Even fewer Americans vote in congressional,
state, and local elections. For example, in the 2014 midterm elections approximately 37
percent of the voting eligible population cast a ballot. Voter participation in the United
States is quite low compared to many other democracies around the world.
Why is it that so many eligible Americans do not go to the polls? One major reason is
our complicated registration practices. In most European nations, the government
automatically registers every eligible citizen to vote. In the United States, the burden of
registering falls entirely on the citizen, and voters must re-register if they move
.Why People Dont Vote
Why is it that so many eligible Americans do not go to the polls? One major reason is
our complicated registration practices. In most European nations, the government
automatically registers every eligible citizen to vote. In the United States, the burden of
registering falls entirely on the citizen, and voters must re-register if they move.

Increasing Voter Turnout

People who are concerned about the low percentage of people who vote have called for
reforms to make voting more convenient. One suggestion is to shift Election Day from
Tuesday to Saturday or Sunday; another is to leave the polls open for several days and
for longer hours. Yet another idea is to have a national registration system, so that
peoples registrations would follow them when they moved to a new state. Some areas

are already experimenting with early voting or making absentee balloting easier in order
to encourage participation.

LESSON 3

Campaigns and
Financing
Campaign Organization
At the head of this organization is a campaign manager, who is responsible for overall
strategy and planning. In a national campaign office, various staff members handle
media relations with journalists from television, radio, print, and digital media.
Other staff manage finances, fundraising, advertising, opinion polls, and campaign
materials. For state and local elections, state and local party officials may help
coordinate the campaigns. Party officials and campaign field workers contact voters,
hold local rallies, and distribute campaign literature.

Propaganda and Advertising

One of the largest expenditures for election campaigns is advertising. Candidates use
advertising to inform voters of their position on issues, to portray themselves in an
appealing light, and to criticize their opponents.
Propaganda involves using ideas, information, or rumors to influence opinion. It is not
necessarily lying or deception, but it is not objective either.

There are many propaganda techniques, most of which rely on arguments that may
sound convincing but that are not necessarily valid. Associating a candidate with a
symbol, using negative words and labels to describe an opponents positions,
pretending that an opponent supports a position that he or she does not, and quoting
only favorable statistics are some examples of the types of propaganda that have played
a part in every campaign since the 1800s.

Television
The most important communication tool for a presidential candidate is television.
Watching television is the main way that many citizens find out about a candidate and
his or her position on issues. Appearances on television news shows are vitally
important for campaigns in order to remain in the public consciousness, and campaigns
will routinely stage newsworthy events with their candidates in order to get favorable
airtime. Televised debates, often occurring late in a campaign, can have an impact on
undecided voters.
You can tell whether an ad was produced by a campaign or by a supporting group by
whether or not the candidate being supported states during the advertisement that he or
she approves of the message. This is a requirement of the Bipartisan Campaign
Reform Act of 2002, written with the idea that fewer negative ads would be created if
candidates had to actively affirm the language in their advertisements.
Just in time for the 2012 presidential election, an election watchdog group developed a
cell phone application that allows a user to point his or her phone at the television and
then be automatically linked to a database containing information about the group
sponsoring the ad.

Internet and Social Media

President Barack Obamas 2008 campaign broke campaign fundraising records and
raised over $700 million, in part by making it even easier for individual donors to give
and volunteer through his campaign websites.
It is no longer enough for candidates to have just one campaign website as their Internet
presence. Campaigns tweet to supporters, are active on Facebook and other social

media sites, maintain blogs, send e-mail blasts to their supporters, and use targeted
advertising across the web
Social media can be a powerful and cost-effective campaign tool. Campaign supporters
generate new content and spread this content to their friends and connections through
the use of social media

Campaign Finance
Running for political office is very expensive. In the 20112012 election cycle,
presidential and congressional candidates spent more than $7 billion on election
campaigns. Candidates need money for office space, staff salaries, travel, and
advertising, among other things. In addition to candidate spending, unions,
corporations, and other groups spend huge sums of money to independently
advertise on behalf of the candidates and issues that they support.
Efforts to regulate money in campaigns are controversial. Those favoring strict
regulation believe unlimited spending can have a corrupting influence on politics and
gives an unfair advantage to those with a lot of money. They argue that, once elected,
candidates will feel the need to give favors to those who contributed heavily to their
campaign.
When a candidate seems to be motivated by specific monetary interests rather than by
the good of the country as a whole, people accuse that candidate of corruption.
Opponents of regulation believe money contributes to a broader political debate. They
argue that giving and spending money in elections is a form of speech and thus
protected by the First Amendment.

Efforts to Regulate Campaign Finance

Since 1908, Congress has tried to set limits on campaign funding in order to reduce
corruption. This has proven to be a difficult balancing act, as limiting spending and
donations can also be seen as limiting free speech. The early campaign finance laws
tried to limit both how much individuals and businesses could donate to campaigns and
how much campaigns could spend. These laws were challenged in court.

In 1975 the Federal Election Commission (FEC) was created to administer federal
election laws.

Public Financing
Federal funding for presidential elections was established as part of a 1974 amendment
of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA). Candidates that qualify can receive
campaign funds from the federal government if they promise to limit the amount their
campaigns spend to a specific amount.
Barack Obama elected not to receive public financing while Republican nominee John
McCain chose to receive it. As a result, Obama was able to outspend McCain by a
factor of two to one. In 2012, neither presidential candidate used public funding.

Direct Funding
Direct contributions are called hard money and are limited based on regulations set out
in FECA and its amendments. As of 2012, individual supporters can donate $2,500 to a
presidential candidate; national and local party committees can give $5,000. Political
action committees (PACs), which are groups established by interest groups to raise
money to support candidates or parties, can donate $2,500.
Individuals are capped at donating $117,000 on political campaigns every two years.

Indirect Funding
Indirect funding includes contributions to issue groups and political organizations
that are independent from and not coordinating with a campaign. In the past, money
given to these organizations was often funneled to national parties and used to
advertise for candidates, hold voter registration drives, or stage get-out-the-vote
campaigns. In 2002, Senators John McCain and Russ Feingold sponsored a bill to rein
in this spending. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) banned these soft
money transactions.

In 2010 the Supreme Court struck down these advertising limits in Citizens United v.
FEC. Due to this and several other legal decisions, PACs that do not coordinate with
campaigns can receive unlimited donations from individuals, corporations, unions, and
other groups. PACs that take advantage of this new freedom are now commonly referred
to as SuperPACs. These powerful SuperPACs collect and spend unlimited amounts of
money to support or defeat a candidate.

LESSON 4

Voters Guide
Voting Qualifications and Voter Registration
The Constitution gives each state authority to set its own rules about who can vote.
However, federal law and several constitutional amendments set a basic standard that
prohibits states from excluding U.S. citizens from voting based on gender, religious
beliefs, income level, race, ethnicity, or for those aged 18 or older. Every state requires
voters to be U.S. citizens and to be residents of the state for a certain period of time
before they are eligible to vote.

Registration became common in the late 1800s as a way to stop voting fraud. In those
days, the slogan Vote Early and Often was not a joke. In Denver in 1900, for example,
one man confessed to having voted 125 times on Election Day!
Veritas Project videos

http://www.npr.org/2016/10/19/498587397/sting-video-purports-to-show-democratsdescribing-how-to-commit-voter-fraud

How and Where to Register?

You must complete a registration form in order to become eligible to vote. In some
states, you can complete the form online; in other states, you must sign and mail it to the
board of elections. Contact your state board of elections to download or request a copy
of your states registration form.

Who Can Help You Register?

Political parties and campaign staff are eager to help people register to vote, especially
people who they believe will support their candidates. They tend to focus their
registration strategies in communities and demographic groups that traditionally vote for
their parties.

Voting
Many elections around the worldand at every level of governmenthave been won or
lost by a miniscule margin.

Deciding to Vote
The decision is yours to make, though. Voting is optional in the United States and in all
but 16 democratic nations. In other countries, especially those with authoritarian
governments, compulsory voting is enforced. In those countries, people who do not
vote can be sanctioned with fines, jail time, or other penalties.

Preparing to Vote
Remember, elections are often about more than picking leaders. Some ballots also
contain referenda, initiatives, or recalls. In some cases, these ballot questions may
seem like minor changes to technical or legal language; in other cases, voters may be
asked big questions such as whether students attending state colleges may receive instate tuition if they are unable to prove they are U.S. citizens or if their county can raise

tax rates. Be sure to find out if your ballot will contain such proposals. If so, consider
your answers before the day you vote.

When and Where to Vote

You may vote on Election Day, like many Americans. If so, you will go to the polling
place near your home, typically at a school or library. Your polling place will be in a
particular precinct or voting district. Each city or county is usually divided into precincts
containing between 200 and 1,000 voters. You may receive a notice from your state
board of elections telling you the location and hours for your polling place.
If you live in one of the 33 states or the District of Columbia that allow early voting, you
can cast a ballot in person during a designated period, usually for about three weeks
prior to Election Day. No excuse or justification is required.
If you do not live in one of these states, and you will be out of town, in the hospital,
observing a religious holiday, or working on Election Day, you may vote early via
absentee ballot.

How to Vote
Voting procedures and ballots vary from state to state. If you vote in person, when you
arrive at your polling place, you may see campaign workers or political party volunteers
trying to persuade undecided voters. State laws restrict electioneering at polling
places.
As soon as the polls close, all the ballots from your precinct will be forwarded to your
city or county canvassing board. This official group has representatives from both
political parties and is in charge of counting votes, called returns. These local boards
bundle all the returns together and send them to the state canvassing authority.
Within days of the election, this state authority certifies the election of the winner.
Through television and radio, people usually know the winners before canvassing
boards certify them. In close elections, the result might depend upon the official vote
count and certification.