https://padlet.com/kenneth_saunders/p07elvgj87bwjv00 By Kenneth Saunders en-us 2021-03-23 03:16:05 UTC 2021-03-23 03:40:56 UTC hello@padlet.com kenneth_saunders https://padlet.com/kenneth_saunders/p07elvgj87bwjv00/wish/1341044185 Voting is an important right that citizens of the US, 18 or over, get that provides civilians a more direct influence on how the government plays out. Sadly it wasn’t always like this though and many people had to work and fight for their voting rights. When the US first started off,  voting was limited to wealthy, white landowners and sometimes that even wasn’t enough because sometimes you needed to be in the dominant religion group to vote back then. As time went on legislators abolished the people needing to own property to vote however our nation was extremely divided racially. African Americans and other people of color couldn’t vote until the passing of the 15th Amendment which was the real first attempt at allowing African Americans to vote. “The 15th amendment provided that no state could deprive any citizen of the right to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. This amendment marked the first time that the U.S. Constitution dictated rules to the states about who they must allow to vote.” (Unit 7, Chapter 18, Lesson 1.3). With this revolutionary change in who was allowed to vote many states, especially the former Confederate States started to impose special clauses on people of color which made it harder for them to vote. Still not satisfied with their rights African Americans kept protesting for their rights and during the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s they gained another important right with the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1965. “With the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the federal government took new steps to directly regulate state-controlled election procedures. The act allowed the federal government to register voters and send poll watchers on Election Day in states and localities that discriminated against African American voters.” (Unit 7, Chapter 18, Lesson 1.4). The Voting Rights Act continued to evolve over the decades to allow for more rights and the ease of access for other people of color to vote as well. Another important amendment allowed women the right to vote after they also fought through the use of protests and suffrage to achieve it. This Amendment is known as the 19th Amendment and is another monumental achievement for the US. “Not until after World War I, when the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified, was woman suffrage put into effect nationwide. While the struggle to get the vote was significant, once the Nineteenth Amendment passed, women did not face the cultural or legal barriers to voting that many African Americans were forced to hurdle well into the mid-twentieth century.” (Unit 7, Chapter 18, Lesson 1.7). With more and more people achieving the right to vote people became very vocal about having the ability to vote which also led to the Twenty Sixth Amendment being ratified in 1971. This amendment effectively lowered the voting age to 18 and was achieved because many young people believed that if people could get drafted to go to war at such a young age then they should then be old enough to have the right to vote. “The Twenty-sixth Amendment, which was ratified in 1971, ended this debate, lowering the voting age to 18 in every state. Thus, more than 10 million citizens between the ages of 18 and 21 gained the right to vote.” (Unit 7, Chapter 18, Lesson 1.7). To this day people believe that voting is an undeniable right in a Democracy and helps regular citizens of a country to ultimately shape the future of the country through voting for their representatives and the people who will lead this country.

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