By Alvin
Although America was based on a representative government where the people chose elected government officials, voting rights in the beginning of the American history was limited to few. At first, different states had different voting requirements since the Articles of Confederation did not set up guidelines regarding voting rights. Most states only granted voting rights to male property owners but some states such as Georgia and Pennsylvania included all male taxpayers. Mostly, states required the minimum voting age to be at least 21. The new Constitution that replaced the Articles of Confederation did not extend voting rights and little changed. The process to extend and guarantee voting rights to more groups in the national level was started when the Fifteenth Amendment passed in 1870.
Even if some states in the early years extended the rights to free African Americans, it was not until the passage of Fifteenth Amendment that the federal government tried to guarantee the rights to African Americans. Unfortunately, deep racial prejudice led states especially in the South to use methods such as poll taxes and literacy tests to prevent African Americans to exercise this right. These unfair methods were finally suspended almost a century later through the passage of Twenty-fourth Amendment and Voting Rights Act.
Up until 1920, women did not have the right to vote. Continuous protests finally pressed the Congress to pass the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted voting rights to women, and in 1924, voting rights were further extended to all citizens who were at least 21 years of age including Native Americans. Finally, the Twenty-sixth Amendment in 1971 granted rights to citizens of at least 18 years old. This was a result of the controversy during the Vietnam War of not giving them the right to vote but permitted the government to draft them to the war. Currently, voting rights are extended to all citizens who are over the age of 18 to enable more citizens to participate in shaping the local and national government.
Strong statements inform the reader very well, although if i were you, i wouldnt start the post with "although"...
ReplyDeleteThis post is very staightforward and to the point. I like how it progressed paragraph by paragraph. Bit, I agree with Aston that you could have a stronger introductory sentence.
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ReplyDeleteThe information in this post was clear and told the story of how we now have our voting rights. I now think that after going through so much trouble and reform to get voting rights for all adults, it is a shame that not as many Americans use their right to vote. Either way, nice post.
ReplyDeletethe information that you stated was well thought out, proved, and strong. I agree with Aston that it would be a good idea to revise your opening sentence, but either way, you got the message through. It is a complete shame that very few people take their voting right for granted and don't go out and vote. Those who take action will cause change and progress.
ReplyDeletegreat post. it was very informative and really got the information across. you included a lot of details without making the blog hard to read. nice work.
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