Can I Vote?

As we are currently learning in class, the amount and types of people that were allowed to vote has changed over the course of this country’s beginning. From white, landowning males, to women, to African Americans, to 18 year olds, the right to vote has greatly expanded. That being said, did the country’s forefathers envision this? Would they ever imagine that I, a 19 year old Latino male with immigrant parents would ever be allowed to vote for something as vital as the next president of the United States? They allowed for the Constitution to have amendments built into it to change the laws of the land, but would they ever envision ones that allowed someone like me to vote? If not, then am I truly being represented when I go out and vote, and if so, then why did it take so long for certain types of people to be eligible to vote?

To be fair, as Dr. McGowen stated, voting is a privilege. I could easily lose that privilege if I decide to go and drive around drunk and get arrested, but what about people who couldn’t vote in the early 1900s? Were they all criminals? Of course not, but they did not have the privilege to vote. Even after the passage of the 15th Amendment African Americans could not vote in the South due to institutionalized laws, referred to as the Jim Crow Laws, that suppressed their rights to vote by enacting things such as poll taxes and literacy tests. In order for any change to be made, politicians had to come in and make change through actions and legislation, but first they’d have to be voted into office by people who could not vote. It’s safe to say that we have come a long way, but there are still barriers that keep us from being able to exercise our privilege to vote.

During the 2016 election there was some mutterings in the news media about voter suppression, but for the most part it remained a side topic compared to all of the other “major” issues facing the election, such as Trump’s Russia problem and Clinton’s FBI issue. After the election however, many outlets began to raise sirens about what happened.

The Real Voting Scandal of 2016

In the link above, The New Yorker mentions “This was the first Presidential election since the Supreme Court’s notorious Shelby County v. Holder decision, which gutted the Voting Rights.” It then talks about how many Republican controlled areas began to push for more Voting ID laws, which have been known to cause a lower turning out rate due to people not having the required ID to be able to vote. This actually has been known to disproportionately affect people of color and the poor. Even in an era where from a legal standpoint every American citizen who is not mentally ill or in not a convicted felon should have the right to vote, there are still ways for certain people to try to skirt around the Constitution, and find loopholes in order to help discriminate against others.

1971 was when the 26th Amendment was ratified, this was the last time we had any true action on the Federal level when it comes to the established rights of voting for people. Almost 50 years later and some are still not truly able to vote, even though they maintain their right. While it is difficult to calculate number of people who don’t vote due to apathy versus those who don’t vote because of suppression, it is known that this is a silent epidemic that helps tilt the political scale towards one side or the other. Hopefully it does not take us another 50 years to figure out how to fix this mistake.

3 Responses to "Can I Vote?"

Christopher Barry says:

November 2, 2017 at 10:09 pm

You raise an interesting challenge regarding how we participate in our government and elections as well as the issues that may arise with participation. In class, we questioned whether political parties and their candidates really want everyone to vote or do they just want their own supporters to vote. Though briefly mentioned, the concept of voter suppression through government action was contemplated as a way political parties and their candidates to get elected. Typically, it is done by suppressing the vote of their opposition. I would like to further examine how politicians suppress voter participation, traditionally within the system and done sneakily, in the context of your argument.
Within the context of the most recent election, Republicans had control of most state governments through both or either of the legislatures or governors. In addition, Republicans also controlled both the House of Representatives and Senate. One of the main causes behind their dominance and control of most levels of government is through gerrymandering. I would argue that gerrymandering is a form of voter suppression by intentionally reducing the influence of their voice in government through amount of government seats and votes. Most of the time the lines are drawn based on eliminating the influence of certain demographics, usually minorities like African Americans or Latinos. This widely affects participation as it gives a distinct advantage to Republicans and a disadvantage to Democrats. In addition, gerrymandering can create apathy as people (typically those educated) see and understand the effects of gerrymandering and thus are less inclined to vote. They see their vote as meaning less than what an typically apathetic citizen sees.
Currently, the Supreme Court is hearing a case on gerrymandering. The verdict on the case can have drastic effects on how politicians and political parties will continue to play and treat politics as a game. If the Supreme Court tackles and attacks gerrymandering with its decision, it would eliminate one more way in which politicians can be not only selective as who they represent (also causing the ineffectiveness of the government-unwilling to compromise-and increasingly extreme and partisan ideas), but also suppressing the votes of their opposition.
Margaret Castelli says:

November 4, 2017 at 5:55 pm

I find your opening statements about the founding father’s ideas on you, as the person of color and young age, having the right to vote very fascinating. I think this idea really ties into the second chapter of our book of a living constitution. Though the founding fathers would probably be shocked to see women, people of color, and those of younger ages voting, this is no longer their time to control or write the laws, and thus, I feel that your privilege to vote is just as strong as white male’s.
On another note, I find your statements about the widespread ignorance about current voter suppression somewhat terrifying and extremely significant. We always think of the idea of voter suppression as something of the past, and associate it with Jim Crow Laws or Suffragettes, but it is still an issue facing many Americans today. Your fears about taking another 50 years to solve these issues are well founded, and I feel that the complexity of this issue and its lack of importance on the media’s global stage will result in a long-term issue in the United States.
Omar Ibrahim says:

November 5, 2017 at 8:53 pm

You bring up a point of discrimination in voting and how politicians find loopholes other than the rules set in place to stop people from voting. However, one can even look at the rules in place and see how they can be manipulated to discriminate against potential voters.

Let’s look at it from a historical perspective, you talk about the Jim Crow laws and the literacy tests and poll taxes, but something else to consider is the incarceration rates of the newly “freed” African Americans. Because of the “Black Codes” being unemployed was a crime that came along with a hefty fine. Since almost all African-Americans couldn’t afford this fine they’d end up in prison. 90% of leased convicts at the time were black, and while not all of them were in prison because of a failure to pay a fine, a majority of them were. Suddenly, they were no longer free and subject to the slavery they had just recently escaped, and without the rights, such as voting, that they had just acquired.

Now, how does this relate today? As most politically educated people know, having a felony in some states take away the right to vote or constitutes a process to regain the “right.” ABC News stated that “Disenfranchised black males account for 35 percent of all Americans now barred from voting because of felony convictions.” That’s 13% of all black males in America. While in contrast a total of 2.9% of Americans have been disenfranchised. As we talk about in class the disenfranchisement would be okay in principle if the non-voters looked like the voters. However, they do not. There is an issue as you state and it has everything to do with political leanings. A solution has yet to arise and it doesn’t seem as if the government has done anything to solve it.

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