Can Americans Take Away American Voting Rights?
ABSTRACT:
Research shows that U.S. voters are not properly informed about local, state, and nationwide candidate policies. Personal accountability, lack of knowledge, and media all contribute to a bad political system. This research shows that most voters look at untrustworthy websites, talk to peers with biased opinions when deciding who to vote for. Present day research shows 2016 election voters are basing their candidate’s selection on “lesser of both evils”.
INTRODUCTION:
Voting allows the people to control the government through an elected official. Voting rights evolved in the United States, creating equal opportunities for all citizens. In 1860, every state allowed all white men over 21 to vote. It was not until after the Civil War in 1861-65, that the 15th amendment was introduced, which allowed all men to vote. Women could not vote until 1920 even though all men were allowed to vote; there were also discriminatory measures excluding minority groups from the political process. (Maxwell & Kay, 2015) One extreme effort to stop the African American vote was the Louisiana Literacy Test (Beaumont, 2014). The test was specifically designed with poorly worded questions and the determining judge was Caucasian; this did not bode well for any test taker. It was not until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that African American earned the right to vote and the literacy test system was abolished (McCarthy, 2014). In 1971, the 26th amendment extended voting rights, and gave 18 year olds the right to vote. Today, this hard fought right is tainted; eligible voters are no longer participating in elections and are neglecting the importance of unalienable rights. The research aims to show the idea that U.S. voters lack knowledge, accountability, and are easily influenced. The majority of voters do not compare candidates’ policies to see which is better. As a result, people make uneducated votes due to lack knowledge of their options. Any website or blog that supports a candidate can easily influence a voter with biased opinions.
AIM
The research is to support the idea that U.S voters need to actively become informed of local, state, and nationwide elections.
METHOD:
This research is a literature review of voting rights. The community chosen for this topic is the United States of America. Three peered reviewed journals were researched on the topic of voting rights in the nation using the ProQuest database.