Response Paper

VOTI NG R

IGHT S

Chap ter 7

– Une ven R

oads

VOTING RIGHTS

• Voting Rights Act of 1965 gave all groups voting rights • Start of our democracy with full enfranchisement

• Groups won the right to vote at different times • Native Americans suffered from states’ rights • VRA not enforced as consistently for Native Americans • Subject to limits on voting due to tribal status, literacy

taxation status and cultural identity

VOTING RIGHTS ACT

• Federal enforcement to protect the voter

• Federal authorities could intervene in Southern states and specific circumstances’’

• Covered jurisdictions” – if discriminatory laws results in voting & registration levels lower than 50%

VOTING RIGHTS ACT

• Each voting violation was handled individually – lengthy periods of collecting evidence and trials

• Section 2: limited the ability of states to “deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the US to vote on account of race or color”

• Section 3: appointed federal examiners to uphold the 15th Amendment

VOTING RIGHTS ACT

• Section 4: identified tests or devices by whit states discouraged voting

• Section 5: any state with these tests had to seek approval from DOJ to administer new voting laws • Judgments made outside of Southern jurisdictions

VOTING RIGHTS ACT

• Expansions • 5 year limits – 1970 extended VRA and gave right to vote to

18 • 1970 expanded to Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho, NY,

Oregon • 1975: MALDEF achieved recognition of Latinos as group

subject to discrimination along with Native Americans, Asians and Alaska Natives • Included ballots in different languages if group was more than

5% of Voting age citizens

COVERED JURISDICTIONS

VOTING & REPRESENTATION

• How do populations where blacks or Latinos are at a minority win elections if voting is racially polarized?

• Are elections still racially polarized as they were in the 1960s and 70s?

CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATION

VOTER PARTICIPATION