Public Opinion Political Beliefs By Mariah Duchesne Period
Public Opinion & Political Beliefs By: Mariah Duchesne Period 4
th 19 Amendment • Ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19 th amendment to the U. S. Constitution granted women the right to vote. • At the time that the U. S. was founded, female citizens did not share all of the same rights as men, including the right to vote. It was not until 1848 that the movement for women’s rights launched on a national level. Many people formed organizations that raised public awareness and lobbied the government to grant voting rights for women. After a 70 year battle, these groups finally emerged victorious with the passage of the 19 th amendment.
rd 23 Amendment • On March 29, 1961, the U. S. Congress passed the 23 rd amendment to the constitution. The amendment gives District of Columbia residents the ability to vote for the country’s president and vice president. Before this, those who are in the District of Columbia were not able to vote because they did not reside in a state.
th 24 Amendment • Not long ago, citizens in some states had to pay a fee to vote in a national election. This fee was called poll tax. On January 23, 1964, the United States ratified the 24 th amendment to the constitution, prohibiting any poll tax in elections for federal officials. • Poll taxes combined with grandfather clauses prevented African Americans from having any sort of political power, especially in the south. • The 24 th amendment is important because African Americans in the south faced significant discrimination and could not vote for elected officials that would work to end discrimination.
Voting Rights Act of 1965 • The Voting Rights Act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson (1908 -73) on August 6, 1965, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15 th amendment (1870) to the Constitution of the United States. The act significantly widened the franchise and is considered among the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U. S. history.
th 26 Amendment • The 26 th amendment gave 18 year olds the right to vote. (1971) • The long debate over lowering the voting age began during WWII and intensified during the Vietnam War when young men were denied the right to vote, but they were allowed to go and fight for their country. • When President Franklin D. Roosevelt lowered the minimum age for the military draft to 18, at a time when minimum voting age was 21, people were using the slogan “old enough to fight, old enough to vote. ” This became a common slogan for youth voting rights movements. • In 1943 Georgia became the first state to lower its voting age in state and local elections from 21 to 18.
Voter Behavior • The study of voter behavior is an examination of why people voted the way they did. • Many Americans closely follow political issues, but studies show that most do not. Most Americans make their political decisions based on factors other than the issues. • These Factors include: • The voters background and identification with the candidates • The Voter’s Party identification • The voters view of the incumbent’s previous performance
Voter Behavior Cont. • For many voters, their impressions regarding particular candidates and political parties are deep-rooted. Most voters already know how they will vote, even in the early stages on the campaign. IT IS RARE for campaigns to change the minds of voters, although sometimes a campaign can successfully sway enough voters to influence the predicted outcome of an election.
Voter’s Background • A voters background has the largest influence on that voters decision. Voter background means the voter’s social identity, such as economic class, ethnicity, gender, race and religious preference. • Often, a candidate will purposely gear campaign messages to particular voters, using a theme that conveys sameness. The sameness can be based on a general background, appearance or even the personality of a candidate. Either way, voters tend to vote for the candidate that seems most like them.
Party Identification • A voters party identification directly influences that voter’s decision. Notably, close to 90% of voters vote for that party’s candidate in presidential elections. American voters tend to learn and adopt form whichever party affiliation most influenced their childhoods. Those raised in a family of Democrats usually identify themselves as a politically liberal, while those raised in a family of Republicans usually identify themselves as politically conservative.
Incumbent’s Performance • A voter’s view of an incumbent’s previous performance greatly influences that voter’s decision. Most presidential elections feature an incumbent candidate. Incumbent refers to the candidate who currently holds that particular political office. • Since Obama was elected president in 2008, he was an incumbent, seeking reelection in 2012.
Why Do People Not Vote? • They think their vote won’t count This a common excuse that’s rooted in the belief that the Electoral College chooses the President, not the voters. Registration Requirements Voting registration can be confusing, especially for citizens that have moved from country to country or from state to state. Can’t get to the polls Getting to the polls can be a hassle, especially for the disabled, the sick, and the people without transportation.
African American Voting Patterns • African Americans have a history in both major political parties of the United States. After the Civil War almost all Blacks considered them-selves Republicans. • Southern Democrats strongly opposed any rights to Blacks at the time and for almost a century after. African Americans were not even allowed to officially attend the Democratic convention until 1924. • At a later point the majority of Blacks had become Democrats. By 2012 only 16% of African Americans considered themselves Republicans. The most votes any Republican candidate received from Blacks since 1968 was Gerald Ford in 1976 (15%).
White Primaries • White primaries were primary elections held in the Southern states of the United States of America in which only white voters were permitted to participate; non-white voters were not allowed. • The Democratic Parties within the Southern States were the first to hold a white primary election back in the 19 th century. Since, for all intents and purposes, the Southern States had one party – The Democrats – excluding non-whites form voting via white primary elections also meant they were excluded from being able to make any important decisions about the government. Some states even wrote the restrictive white primary elections into law, directly stating that they were “selectively inclusive. ”
Racial Gerrymandering • Definition: term that describes the deliberate rearrangement of the boundaries of congressional districts to influence the outcome of elections. • Significance: This ensured that other ethnicities would remain the minority in each district thus preventing them from gaining the majority vote on issues that pertain to them. This was yet another form used by the south to prevent African American vote from having any substantial impact.
Women’s Suffrage • Women’s suffrage is the right of women to vote and to stand for electoral office. • The suffrage movement in the United States gained prominence with the first women’s rights convention in the world: Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. The convention was organized by active members of the abolitionists movement who met in England in 1840 at the World Anti-Slavery Convention. • List of Leaders include: • Jane Adams, Susan B. Anthony, Alice Blackwell, Lucy Burns, Laura Clay, etc.
The Abolitionists & The Suffragists • The Campaign from women’s suffrage began in earnest in the decades before the Civil War. During the 1820’s and 30’s, most states had extended the franchise to all white men, regardless of how much money or property they had. At the same time, all sorts of reform groups were flourishing across the United States-temperance clubs, religious movements and moral-reform societies, anti-slavery organizations-and in many of these, women played a prominent role.
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