The Antlerette December 16, 2019 Volume 94 Issue 5
Voting? Please Vote? Hannah Villarreal, Editor In this article, I will be covering multiple topics related to voting in America. These include: a brief historical review of voting in America, minority groups facing systemic voter restriction, current voter turnout, and the extreme importance of voting. The democracy of America - the people’s vote, was agreed upon in the Declaration of Independence, “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”; however, the right to vote was not implemented until the ratification of the Constitution. The first ‘election’ in America was election of George Washington, our first President, and since then, America has (obviously) gone through some significant changes. Currently, America is being overseen by its 45th president. Now, despite what it says in the Constitution, “all men are created equal”, this country hasn’t really lived up to its words; we tend to be hypocritical in this country. Voting in this country has not always been an equal right for everyone. Prior to 1870, the only people who could vote in America were white men; not entirely surprising to me. The 15th amendment, ratified on February 3rd 1870, allowed for black men in America to vote -
however, this right was not entirely protected and allowed states to create laws and restrictions for voting. An example of these restrictions would be literacy tests to see whether or not they were skilled enough to vote, or having then recite the entire Constitution. These tests were specifically created to target minorities within America and restrict their Constitutional right to vote. The 15th amendment was not protected until after a mass uprising of African Americans who demanded their rights be protected; this created the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Many people may see these requirements as valid, but that is not what a democracy is. It is not collecting the most “competent” individuals and only having them vote - that is not a democracy, that is an aristocracy. A democracy is having everyone counted, knowledgeable or not; everyone deserves to be heard. Now, despite this seeming like such a thing of the past, it is not. Voter restriction is still present in modern America. Since 2010, 25 states have consistently required voters to show photo ID to vote, and some states - I am unable to find a date of when this was enacted and/or proposed - require a driver’s license to vote. While this does seem like a logical thing to require - to ensure those that are voting are who they claim to be - it is extremely impacting of minority groups. In a research report done by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Employment and Training Institute, they found that less than 50% of black and Hispanic individuals those that are age eligible to vote - hold a valid driver’s license; compared to the 85%