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Disenfranchisement Laws In America

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In the first couple of centuries after the Europeans first came to the Americas and established colonies they also established a government. However, the United States government in the 17th century has numerous differences from the American government in the 21st century. American citizens have overcome numerous obstacles for gaining the right to vote. During the 20th century both women and African Americans gained the right to vote. There was even an amendment established in the United States Constitution, the fifteenth amendment, which prohibits state and federal governments from denying any citizen the right to vote despite their race, religion, or the state of being subjugated to a person more powerful. However, in the last decade the right to vote has been challenged by numerous policies established by the legislative changes and has caused many …show more content…

One example of how the right to vote has been taken away from American citizens is through the criminal justice system. The crime rate in America has been on the rise in the last decade, and research shows that there are nearly 5.8 million citizens in the United States that have been convicted of a felony; 4 million of those citizens with felonies are no longer in jail. Surprisingly, there are only two states, Maine and Vermont, that allow ex-felons to vote. Other states enforce disenfranchisement laws. Disenfranchisement laws are laws that strip one’s right to vote. These laws have had a negative impact on the results of several elections because of the high numbers of people restricted from exercising their right to vote. Many cases have been revealed that demonstrate that giving ex-felons the right to vote can cause different outcome

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With compulsory voting many countries become successful. Germany,Peru, Australia and many more countries have been required to vote since the late 1800’s to the late 1900’s (Doc A). In Brazil those who don 't vote have to pay a fine, causing many to not miss their voting slot time

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In the United States, the right to vote is one of the most important fundamental right that is available to any American citizen. Once an exclusive right that was available only to a certain group of individuals, has been extended to all citizens in the United States. However, the exception to this involves individuals who have been convicted of a felony. There are approximately five million citizens that are denied the right to vote because they have been convicted of a felony, many of which were nonviolent. The loss of their voting right entails a significant impact to these individuals as members of society and further hinders their attempt at reintegration into a democratic society.

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“ While compulsion of any kind is a restriction, so is the compulsion to drive only on the right side of the road.” ( “Is It Time To Consider Mandatory Voting Laws? Worsening Voting Statistics Make a Strong Case.” by John W. Dean.) One way voter turnout can increase is by compulsory (required) voting.

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Over the course of time Americans have been  fighting for the right of freedom. There was a once a time when only white males who owned land were able to vote. However, now some individuals are requesting that America has a mandatory voting law. Mandatory voting is the creation of a law to obligate every American citizen vote. If any citizen does not vote, he or she may face consequences such as a fine.

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Analysis on Limitations Regarding Prisoner Voting using American and Canadian Cases Erick Reyes-Sagastume (6084701) POLI 1P91 TA NAME Brock University Suffrage is the right to vote in political elections, however, throughout the history of the right to vote, the term suffrage has been tampered to a point where it only favours the upper echelon of the social scale. For an example, the Canadian women’s suffrage movement was a progression that took several decades that targeted the conflict and struggle that Canadian women had to endure whilst fighting for their equality. Although the right to vote has elevated to what it once was there is a certain group of society who are exempt of their right to vote due to the same reason

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1404 Words | 6 Pages

America, known as “the land of the free and the home of the brave,” is a country recognized for it’s freedom and rights. As a country, at almost every turn, America has shown it’s responsibility and priority towards it citizens. Specifically, with the opportunity to vote. Being able to vote for presidents, senators, and governors is a very strong right that Americans hold in their hand and for many others in neighboring countries, this can be a sheer dream. Recently, Ohio passed a new law, stating that citizens who did not regularly vote for four years and were unresponsive to any kind of sent notice, would be removed from voting rolls; therefore, the name, “Use it or Lose it.”

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And although Democratic voters may be more affected by the laws, some Republican voters will be disenfranchised by them, too. The measure was part of a wave of new voting restrictions passed around the country, mostly by Republicans, after their sweeping victories in the 2010 elections. Supporters argue that such restrictions are necessary to prevent fraud.

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557 Words | 3 Pages

480), the essay adheres to the principle of ‘Social Benefit’. This principle serves as the core of my argument that “compulsory voting serves as tool that can be used to improve the state of inequality of a nation”. Through a case study comparing voter participation in both the United States and Australia, the essay clearly conveyed the notion that in a system of voluntary voting, the citizens least likely to participate in elections are those from the least privileged backgrounds, i.e. low income earners, those from ethnic backgrounds, or those with low level education, which can consequently result in parliamentary focus skewing away from these demographics that arguably require a greater amount of advocacy, to instead favour the more well off voting community as it is they who will elect the nation’s representative. Conversely, in a democracy that enforces mandatory voting, this political inequality does not occur, but rather, compulsory voting indicates that the community is, by law, one; citizenship is a status that is to be enjoyed by everyone, despite economic, employment or residential status, education levels, ethnicity, gender of disability (Hill, 2004). Therefore, it is evident that the principle of social benefit, which acknowledges the extent to which an action produces beneficial consequences for society, is a primary

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The issue on voting rights of people who have committed a felony is very important one, because it has had a significant impact from voting turnout in recent elections. According to The Sentencing Project, approximatively 5.3 millions of people were unable to vote due to a felony conviction in the 2008 election. This number affects mostly minorities group such African American and Latino who make up more than 60 % of prison population despite being only 28% of US population (We The People, 330). Until this law is revere, this number will continue to growth with minorities unfairly excluded from voting at much higher rate. Consequently, these restrictions have had and will continue to impact the voting turnout in US at federal and local election.

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However, there have been many instances of illegal voting but very few cases where a voter is disenfranchised. Ironically, many people also say that voter ID laws illegally keep people from the polls, when in fact the goal of voter ID is to keep illegal people from the polls. India, the second most populated country in the world, requires a government issued voter ID card to be presented to vote, and still over half their population manages to vote, just like how over half of the united states does without voter ID. The United States, according to the US Census Bureau, has over 10 million illegals living in it. The likelihood of many of them voting is high, and some people want to keep it that way, unlawful as it may be.

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1215 Words | 5 Pages

Who gets to decide whether a person gets to vote or not? The laws in America seem to be limiting the ability to vote for their future president. When you think “voting” in the United States, you think about being a citizen. To vote you must be a citizen but another big factor is you cannot vote if you are a convicted felon. A convicted felon is prohibited from voting in the states excluding two other states.

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449 Words | 2 Pages

Their reasoning behind this theory is that “low income earners, the less educated, the less urban, the young, and ethnic minorities have a significantly lower propensity to vote [when voluntary]” ( Bechtel 1), which leaves the middle/upper class and ethnic majority to vote on policy that will affect the entire population. These classes are not as concerned with policy that will benefit the lower class and this is shown by “public policy systematically benefiting voters over nonvoters” (Bechtel 1). The authors found that it is difficult to prove the impact compulsory voting on policy between elections because of the changing political and social environment in countries and factors such as international problems, candidates running for office and economic issues facing the country. This causes the authors to be unable to definitely say whether or not a change in election results are due to compulsory voting or some of the other social changes. Another problem that the authors faced in determining causation in changes is the fact that policies are proposed by candidates, and that people could be voting for a candidate based off of their personality and campaigning instead of voting for the specific policy

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417 Words | 2 Pages

The right to vote was a privilege given to only a particular group of people in the past. The right to participate in the judicial system to some is an honor. This process allows people to voice and chose who they want in office or what issue they want to support. Voter Id laws are incorporated into our society as a form of control in order to keep people silent. Voter id laws are under controversy because the law is viewed as being discriminatory against minorities.

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737 Words | 3 Pages

There are laws on voting rights that no one can be discriminated upon and everyone should be allowed to vote but, since there are no consequences then this law can be neglected severely. Which is already happening in today’s states, a lot of states a amending the legislation and infringing on selected people's voting rights which is blatant discrimination. We need to have punishments and they need to become enforced effective immediately. If a state is caught tampering with American rights then the people in charge need to be held responsible. The government could threaten the states with a cut in government funding since they rely on that money quite a bit.

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