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Mock
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What is the Mock Election?
A Mock Election gives you the chance to be
heard. On October
26 and 27, you will be given a chance to cast your vote!
The History of Voting
Over
the years, people
have been denied the right to vote for many reasons, including gender, race,
citizenship, literacy, religion, age and economic
status. In many countries, including the United States, it has taken many
years for groups of people to win the right to vote. Citizens of countries
like Nicaragua, Russia, Poland or Czechoslovakia, or black residents of
South Africa, have waited for many years for a chance to vote in a democratic
election. Some are still waiting.
1776:
Declaration of Independence signed. Right to vote during
the Colonial and Revolutionary
1787: Constitutional Convention held
in Philadelphia. States are given
power to regulate their own voting laws. In most cases, suffrage remains
in hand of white male landowners.
1789:
George Washington elected president by the unanimous votes
of all 69 electors in the Electoral College.
1848:
First women’s suffrage convention held in Seneca Falls,
New York, seeking equal status for women, especially voting rights.
1865: 13th Amendment ratified,
abolishing slavery.
1866:
Congress passes a Civil Rights Act defining citizenship
and prohibiting discrimination based on race.
1868:
14th Amendment ratified, granting citizenship
to former slaves.
1869:
National American Woman Suffrage Association is founded,
with Susan B. Anthony as president.
1870:15th
Amendment ratified, emphasizing legal rights of African Americans to vote
and prohibiting state and local governments from denying that right.
1871:Victoria
Woodhull addresses Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives,
stating that women are citizens of the United States and should be allowed
to vote under the provisions of the 14th and 15th
Amendments.
1872:
Susan B. Anthony votes but is arrested for violating federal
legislation that forbids votes of confederates or traitors.
1875:
Supreme Court decides that suffrage is not co-existent
with the right to citizenship granted in the 14th Amendment and women's
rights are to be decided by state legislatures.
1876: Southern states begin to enact
measures that restrict ability of Blacks to register and vote. Poll taxes, grandfather clauses and literacy
tests introduced in many states.
1884:
Supreme Court rules that Native Americans are an exception
to the 14th Amendment and, therefore, do not enjoy rights of
citizenship.
1890: Wyoming admitted to statehood and
becomes first state to legislate suffrage for women in its constitution
after allowing women to vote since 1869 as a territory.
1909:National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) founded.
1912-1913:
Women suffragists lead marches through New York and Washington,
D.C.
1920: 19th Amendment ratified,
giving women right to vote in both state and federal elections.
1924: Act of Congress awards citizenship
to Native Americans, but they are denied voting rights in New Mexico and
Arizona because they pay taxes on their lands, which have trust.
1943: Senator Jennings Randolph introduces
a bill to lower the voting age to 18 in both state and federal elections.
Georgia lowers voting age from 21 to 18 in state and local elections.
1947: Miguel Trujillo, a Native American
and former Marine, sues New Mexico for not allowing him to vote.
1957: Civil Rights Act of 1947 authorizes
Justice Department to punish any inference or disruption
1960: Civil Rights Act of 1960 authorizes courts to appoint federal referees to protect voting rights and declares obstruction of these court orders a federal offense.
1961: 23rd Amendment grants residents of the District of Columbia the right to vote in presidential elections.
1964: Civil Rights Act of 1964 adds further guarantees for
the right to register to vote without fear of reprisal.
1964: 24th Amendment guarantees that the right
to vote will not be denied or abridged by failure to pay any poll tax
or other tax.
1965: In March, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. leads 25,000 people
in Alabama on a March from Selma to Montgomery to demand protection for
African American voters. In August, the Voting Rights Act makes discriminatory
state voting practices illegal.
1968: Peak of demonstrations that protest the Vietnam War
and demand a lowering of the voting age on the premise that people who
are old enough to fight are old enough to vote.
1970: Amendments to Voting Rights Act lower voting age to
18 and ban use of literacy tests.
1971: 26th Amendment ratified, granting voting
rights to
18-year-olds.
1975:
Amendments to Voting Rights Act require that certain voting
materials be printed in languages of specific minority groups.
1993: The Federal National Voter Registration Act was passed
by Congress to increase the number of eligible citizens who register to
vote by making registration available at the Division of Motor Vehicles
and public assistance and disability agencies.
This
information has been made available to Utah’s Student/Parent Mock Election
from the Deseret News.
Why Should I Vote?
Because your state and country need you!
Democracy is defined by the Webster’s Dictionary as “government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.”
For a democracy to continue, citizens need to participate and be heard. Not everyone in America takes advantage of their right to vote. Americans have the worst voting record among citizens of major democracies.
Young people have been
particularly absent from fulfilling this civic responsibility. Since 1972,
the percentage of 18-21 year olds who vote has been declining. In 1988,
only one in three in this age group voted. A poll by Scholastic magazine
shows that most high school students do not think voting is very important.
What do you think? What can happen if more and more people decide not to
vote?
The Power of One
Many
historical events were decided by one vote.