Elections and voting: Why should they matter to you?
Elections are a regular feature of this nation’s political system. In fact, Americans hold more elections to elect more officeholders than any other nation in the world. This emphasis on elections stems from the constitutional principle of popular sovereignty. If political authority comes from the people, what better way to exercise that authority than by voting? In a 2012 opinion survey, the majority felt that voting in an election was crucial.
Yet despite this widespread view, a sizable percentage of Americans do not vote regularly. Furthermore, throughout our history, many Americans have been denied voting rights. In many cases, the right to vote has been won only after years of struggle.
When the U.S. Constitution was written in 1787, it said very little about elections. The Constitution did establish a procedure for electing the president and vice president. But it left most other details about elections and voting rights to the states.
At that time, suffrage, or the right to vote, was limited in the United States. In 1789, only about 6 percent of the population was allowed to vote. Most states restricted suffrage to white males who owned substantial property. John Jay, one of the authors of The Federalist Papers, expressed a view common to many of the nation’s founders when he said, “those who own the country ought to govern it.’
Over time, however, suffrage was gradually extended. During the 1820s, a political movement to eliminate property qualifications for voting swept the country. Propelled by Andrew Jackson, the first “common man” to become president, states opened their voting rolls to all white males. This political movement also pioneered the use of political parties to mobilize voters and get them to the polls.
After the Civil War, the adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment advanced the principle of universal male suffrage. This amendment, ratified in 1870, granted voting rights to all male citizens, including African Americans.
Early in the 20th century, other measures expanded voting rights even more. The Seventeenth Amendment, ratified in 1913, provided for the direct election of senators. Previously, senators had been elected by state legislatures. The Nineteenth Amendment, approved in 1920, gave women in all states the right to vote. The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 helped extend suffrage to American Indians by granting them citizenship.
For some African Americans, the expansion of suffrage after the Civil War proved short-lived. For nearly a century after the war, many states – especially in the South – found ways to deny suffrage to blacks, despite the Fifteenth Amendment. They erected legal barriers, such as literacy tests and poll taxes, to keep African Americans from the polls.
In the 1950s and 1960s, leaders of the civil rights movement made expansion of voting rights one of their key goals. They organized mass protests, calling on the federal government to ensure that African Americans could exercise their voting rights, no matter where they lived. They achieved their first victory with the ratification of the Twenty-fourth Amendment in 1964. This amendment banned poll taxes, which had kept many poor African Americans from voting.
A second major advance came with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which banned literacy tests. In some parts of the South, this law placed voter registration, or the process of signing up to vote, under federal authority. In the past, local election officials in these areas had prevented African Americans from registering to vote. As a result of the Voting Rights Act, the number of African American voters increased dramatically in the South.
The next major expansion of suffrage occurred with ratification of the Twenty-sixth Amendment in 1971. This amendment lowered the voting age to 18. Previously, most states had required voters to be at least 21 years old. This amendment was adopted during national debates over the Vietnam War. At the time, many people argued that if 18-year-olds were old enough to be drafted and sent into battle, then they were old enough to vote.
Today, there are four basic requirements to be eligible to vote in the United States. In most states, you must be
To register to vote, you must fill out a form that asks for such basic information as your address and date of birth. You may also be required to provide the registrar of voters with proof of your identity. In general, voter registration closes a month or so before an election. However, North Dakota does not require residents to register before voting. A few other states allow voters to register at their polling place on Election Day.
To encourage more people to vote, Congress has tried to make the voter-registration process easier. In 1993, for example, it passed the National Voter Registration Act, better known as the Motor Voter Act. This law requires that states allow residents to register to vote while applying for a driver’s license. It also requires states to provide voter-registration forms at social service offices and by mail.
The Motor Voter Act has been quite successful in promoting voter registration. By the 1996 presidential election, 18 million new voters had registered. Since the act was passed, there has been some increase in registration among voting-age Americans.
Increased voter registration, however, has not translated into high voter turnout on Election Day. Voter turnout is the proportion of the voting-age population that actually votes. Today, the United States has one of the lowest voter turnouts among the world’s established democracies. Between 50 and 60 percent of American voters turn out to vote in presidential elections. In contrast, figures for many European democracies exceed 70 percent.
Political scientists point to a number of factors that might explain this difference in voter turnout. For example, ballots in some countries may be simpler, with fewer candidates and issues to vote on than in a typical American election. U.S. elections take place on workdays, which means that many voters must take time off from their jobs to go to the polls. In many other countries, elections are held on weekends or official Election Day holidays.
In some European countries, such as Belgium and Italy, voting is compulsory, not voluntary as in the United States. Voters who do not participate in elections in those countries may face fines or have their right to vote revoked.
Low U.S. turnout rates may also reflect the fact that a majority of states deny convicted felons voting rights while in jail, on parole, or on probation. Such restrictions deny about 1 adult in 50 the right to vote.
Low voter-turnout rates have fueled concern that Americans are becoming less connected to their communities and see less reason to get involved in politics. Experts say that the 2012 presidential election showed a decrease in voter turnout compared with both the 2004 and 2008 elections.