The Right to Vote
 The Framers of the Constitution purposefully left
the power to set suffrage qualifications to each
State
 When the Constitution went into effect in 1789, the
right to vote was restricted to white male property
owners.

Only 1 in 15 adult white males could vote in elections
 Today, more than 205 million people qualify to
vote
5 Stages of Extending Suffrage
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Early 1800s – religious qualifications disappeared,
followed by property ownership and tax qualifications.
By the mid 1800s almost all adult white male could vote.
Following the Civil War, the 15th amendment tried to end
voter discrimination due to race.
19th amendment guaranteed the right to vote for women
During the 1960s, Congress took steps to guarantee
suffrage for African Americans
26th amendment extended voting rights to 18 year olds
The Power to Set Voting Qualifications
 5 Restrictions placed on States
 Each state must allow eligible voters to vote in all elections
within the state
 No state can deprive a person the right to vote because of race
 No state can deprive a person the right to vote on account of
gender
 No state can require the payment of a poll tax
 No state can deprive a person over the age of 18 the right to
vote because of age.
Voter Qualifications
 3 factors used to determine voter eligibility
 Citizenship
 Residence


Important to keep political machines from importing enough
outsiders to affect the outcome of the election and to ensure that
every voter has at least some time in which to become familiar
with the candidates and issues in an election.
Age
Other Requirements
 Registration
 It gives officials a list of people who are eligible to vote in elections,
and it helps to prevent voter fraud.
 Motor Voter Law

Allows citizens to register to vote when they renew their driver’s license
 Literacy Tests
 Ruled illegal by the Voting Rights Act of 1970
 Citizens must pass a literacy test to be able to vote. Used as a
barrier to prevent African Americans from voting after the Civil
War
 “grandfather clause” – because many whites also could not read or
write, literacy tests contained a provision that stated a person may
vote without passing a literacy test if any male ancestor could vote.
Other Requirements (cont.)
 Poll Tax
 Declared illegal in the 24th amendment
 Required a tax be paid prior to participating in an election.
The 15th Amendment
 “Right to vote cannot be denied to any citizen of
the United States because of race, color, or
previous condition of servitude.”

Intended to ensure the right to vote for African
Americans
 Southerners tried to block the effect of this
amendment by using intimidation, literacy tests,
poll taxes, gerrymandering, and white primaries
Gerrymandering
 The practice of drawing electoral district lines in
order to limit the voting strength of a particular
group or party.

Ruled unconstitutional in Gomillion v. Lightfoot (1960)
White Primaries
 Because political parties are “private associations”
they believed they could bar African Americans from
voting in primary elections, thus excluding them
from an important step in the public election process

Smith v. Allwright (1944) outlawed white primaries because
nominations are an integral part of the election process
Civil Rights Legislation
 Civil Rights Act of 1957
 Set up the U.S. Civil Rights Commission to check into claims of
voter discrimination, gave the attorney general authority to
prevent interference with any person’s right to vote in a federal
election
 Civil Rights of 1960
 Added an additional safeguard by allowing the appointment of
federal voting referees when voter discrimination is uncovered
Legislation (cont.)
 Civil Rights Act of 1964
 Broader and more effective than its predecessors.
 Outlaws discrimination in several areas, especially job
related matters
 Forbids the use of any voter registration or literacy
requirement in an unfair or discriminatory manner and
makes violation a federal offence
 Voting Rights Act of 1965
 Made the 15th amendment a truly effective part of the
Constitution
 Applied to all elections held anywhere in the country
Voter Behavior
 In the 2000 election 205.8 million Americans were
eligible to vote


Only 105.4 million (51.2%) actually voted for president
Only 99 million (48%) voted for U.S. Representative
 In the 1998 off-year election, only 66,033 (33.9%)
voted for U.S. Representative
Why People Don’t Vote
 “cannot vote” nonvoters (20 million)
 Resident aliens
 Ill or physically cannot make it to the polls
 Traveling out of country unexpectedly
 People in mental health care facilities
 In jail or prison
 Religious nonvoters
 Actual nonvoters (80 million)
 People deliberately choose not to vote
 Convinced it makes no real difference who wins
 Satisfaction
 Distrust of politics and politicians
 Lack of political efficacy (lack of any sense of their own influence
or effectiveness in politics.)
Factors Affecting Turnout
 Complicated election procedures
 Inconvenient registration requirements
 Long ballots
 Long lines at polling places
 Bad weather
 Time-zone Fallout
 Because polls have closed in the east and central timezones, a winner may be declared before some people vote
in the mountain and pacific zones
 Lack of Interest
Who Votes?
 The people most likely to vote:
 Display such characteristics as higher levels of income,
education, and occupational status.
 They are well-integrated into community life, long-time
residents, who are active and comfortable in their
surroundings
 Strong party identification, and believe voting is important
 Women are more likely to vote than men
Who Doesn’t Vote?
 People are less likely to vote if:
 They are younger than 35, unmarried, and unskilled
 They live in the South and in rural areas
Sociological Factors
 Political Socialization is the process by which
people come to believe what they believe about
politics

Factors that influence voting behavior
Income, occupation (higher income – Republican)
 Education (more education – Republican, however, education
make you more liberal)
 Gender, Age (women, young people – Democrat)
 Religion (Protestants – Republican, Catholics, Jews – Democrat)
 Geography (South/Midwest – Republican, Northeast/West –
Democrat)
 Family (You vote the way your parents voted)

Psychological Factors
 A strong party identification is the single most
significant and lasting predictor of how a person
will vote.
Straight-ticket voting – voting for candidates of only
one party in an election
 Split-ticket voting – voting for candidates of more than
one party in the same election

 The impression a candidate makes on the voters
can have an impact on how they will vote
 The role of issues are especially important in
presidential elections, people care about the
things that effect them most.