voting rights

Winning the right to vote

During the early years of the United States, voting rights were limited to a small percentage of the population. Despite having over 4 million citizens, only about 120,000 were eligible to vote, with the privilege usually reserved for free white men who owned property. However, by 1860, most states allowed all white men above the age of 21 to vote.

Following the Civil War in 1861-65, voting rights were granted to men of all races with the passing of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution. Women were later granted the right to vote in 1920 through the 19th Amendment, while 18-year-olds were given the right to vote with the 26th Amendment in 1971. The government has implemented federal laws to ensure that Americans can exercise their voting rights, including those with disabilities and those who speak languages other than English.

In the early days of voting in the US, ballots were not private. Voters would often announce their votes out loud or raise their hands to indicate their choices. Printed ballots became more common after the Civil War, but they were distributed by individual candidates or parties and often had distinctive colors or shapes that made it easy to see how someone voted.
It wasn't until the 1890s that voting became truly secret, with the government issuing ballots that showed the names of all candidates. These ballots were distributed only at polling places, and voting was done in private booths to ensure that every voter had the right to a secret ballot.

Voting rights of the 1960s

In 1957 and 1960, laws were passed by Congress to safeguard African American voters. Despite this, during the 1964 presidential elections, they still faced difficulties in registering to vote, encountering opposition and even brutal violence during voter registration drives. In March 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. organized a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to draw attention to the issue. Following this, President Lyndon B. Johnson sent a voting rights bill to Congress, which was passed and became the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The Act empowered the U.S. attorney general to dispatch federal examiners to assist with African American voter registration and abolished literacy tests in certain states. It had an immediate effect, with around 250,000 new African American voters registered by the end of 1965. The Act was subsequently strengthened in 1970, 1975, and 1982, and was extended for 25 years in 2006 by President George W. Bush.

However, in 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated a crucial provision of the Act in the Shelby County v. Holder case. The Court determined that states with a history of voter bias no longer required federal pre-approval to amend their election laws, affecting mainly Southern states. Chief Justice John Roberts cited improvements in voting conditions in these states as the reason for the Court's decision. President Barack Obama criticized the ruling, calling for new legislation to safeguard equal access to the polls for all voters.