Voting Rights Essay

Voting rights comprise an integral part of the US democracy and lay the foundation to the US political system and public control over the political power in the country. At the same time, voting rights have been discriminatory for a considerable part of the US history, affecting minorities and putting some groups of Americans into a disadvantageous position compared to the rest. In this regard, it is possible to distinguish the social status, gender, race and other reasons, which could have put Americans into an unequal position in terms of their participation in voting and elections. Nevertheless, in the course of time, the US legislation evolved and lawsuits from the part of citizens encouraged legislators to introduce changes to provide all Americans with equal voting rights, preventing discrimination and exclusion of some Americans from the election process.
Historically, the US voting legislation was discriminatory excluding a large part of the US population from the voting process. In this regard, it is possible to refer to the early experience of the US in organization of elections, when the property qualification raised unsurpassable barriers for many Americans depriving them of an opportunity to participate in the voting process. However, due to the emergence of Jacksonian democracy, the voting rights were granted to white Americans, regardless of their property status (Castoriadis, 197). In fact, the abolition of property qualification for white men was an important step toward expanding the voting rights to a larger part of the US population. Obviously, the property qualification was discriminatory because it excluded Americans, who did not match the property qualification. In such a way, Americans were dependent on their property and, if they did not match the property qualification, they were totally excluded from the voting process that was apparently unfair.
At the same time, the true revolution in the development of the voting legislation in the US occurred when citizenship became the ground for the voting rights of Americans (Michaels, 118). In fact, citizenship grants the right to vote, as the Fourteenth amendment to the US Constitution states. The introduction of the Fourteenth amendment was crucial for the development of the US democracy because it granted American citizens with the right to vote and it was the US citizenship that was the major criterion for granting an individual with the right to vote.
However, in spite of the elimination of voting barriers on the ground of the property qualification and citizenship, the US still suffered from the discrimination of minorities. To put it more precisely, after the abolition of slavery a large part of the American population consisting of African Americans did not have access to the voting process. To tackle this problem, the USA legislators introduced the Fifteenth amendment to the US Constitution, which granted non-white men with the right to vote in 1870. This amendment was extremely important, taking into consideration the position of the African American population and the lack of the representation of African Americans in the political life of the country. As the matter of fact, racial minorities were virtually excluded from the political life and did not have voting rights before the introduction of the Fifteenth Amendment.
At the same time, the position of women in the US remained disadvantageous because, in spite of legislative changes closing the gap between social classes and races, the gender discrimination in the voting legislation persisted. To put it more precisely, women just did not have voting rights and, therefore, were inferior to men, being totally excluded from the voting process. As a result, women were under-represented in the political life of the country. Nevertheless, women got voting right in 1920 due to the Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. The Nineteenth amendment to the US Constitution granted American women with the right to vote that was an extremely important step toward the truly democratic voting system.
However, in spite of implemented amendments to the US Constitution and legislative changes inequality in regard to the US election and voting system persisted. In 1964, the Twenty-fourth amendment to the US Constitution prohibited imposing poll taxes of property requirements in federal elections, which raised barriers on the way of many Americans to the voting process. In such a way, the social status and material position of Americans became unimportant and irrelevant in terms of their voting rights because all Americans, representing all social strata could participate in the voting process.
Some states introduced limitation on voting rights of representatives of racial minorities. To tackle this problem, the Voting Rights Act 1966 was implemented. The Voting Rights act granted voting rights to racial minorities in certain states, where they were still discriminated and excluded from the voting process.
Furthermore, in spite of the ban of poll taxes and property requirements in federal elections, some limitations persisted at the state level (Chomsky, 142). Therefore, in 1966, Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections prohibited imposition of poll taxes or property requirements in all US elections. This case was very important because it put the end to the discrimination of Americans depending on their social status and income in regard to their participation in voting process.
In the late 20th century, legislative changes concerning voting rights persisted. In this regard, it is worth mentioning the Twenty-sixth amendment to the US Constitution, which granted voting right to adult citizens between 18 and 21 in 1971 (Lewis, 235). In such a way, citizens could participate in the voting process, if they reached the age of 18 at the moment of voting.
In 1986, Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act grants voting right to the US military and citizens abroad. This was another important legislative change which allowed Americans, who were abroad, the military mainly, to vote. In such a way, Americans were not bound strictly to the territory of the US to participate in the voting process. Instead, they could vote being abroad.
Finally, in 1995, the Federal “Motor Voter Law” took effect making it easier to register to vote. In fact, this law was very important, taking into consideration the growing mobility of the US population (Stewart, 105). The law simplified the registration process and allowed Americans to vote, regardless of their physical location.
Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that the US legislation granted voting rights to all Americans. In the course of the US history, the voting legislation changed and evolved expanding the voting rights to larger groups of the US population to enroll all Americans without exception. As a result, today, practically all Americans, who reached the age of 18 have voting rights and can participate in the political life of the country.