...Minority Voting is an important topic to research and talk about. Not many people know how hard it is for Minorities to even get into a voting booth. Minorities got the privilege to vote in 1965 when the Voting Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The Voting Rights Act is considered one of the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. History. Before that law was passed, in 1960 if you wanted to vote African Americans had to take an impossible literacy test. One of the main issues for minority voting is the Voter ID Requirements. Some states passed a law that required all voters to prove their identity with a voter ID. Researchers used a dataset to compare the turnouts of elections where strict...
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...Voting Rights Act of 1965 In 2013 the US Supreme Court ruled that Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was unconstitutional. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been the most powerful piece of civil rights legislation, and guaranteed political representation via popular vote. Moreover, Section 5 specifically necessitated selected areas with a history of voter discrimination to get approval from either the U.S. District Court for D.C. or the U.S. Attorney General before they amending voting processes. This was to preempt any minority voter disenfranchisement through the use of any variety of voting "test," such as a literacy test, educational or knowledge requirements, proof of good moral character, and requirements that a person must be vouched for in order to exercise their right to vote. It has also been updated to protect against the use of gerrymandering, prohibitive voting hours, and abusive ID requirements. Chief Justice Roberts delivered the majority opinion that ruled Section 4(b) as being unconstitutional. He described the Voting Rights Act as "strong medicine" for a time when minority voter disenfranchisement was nation wide. The Census Bureau has since reported that the number of African American voters in five of the nine states listed in the Voting Rights Act actually surpasses white voter turnout. The majority opinion granted that voter discrimination still exists, but questioned whether the laws outlined in Section 4(b) were truly the best means of...
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...concerned that minorities, who tend to vote democratic, will be unfairly targeted in new voter laws as the Republicans try to continue to hold office. New voter ID laws, polling times, and investigations on voter fraud are all potential issues being discussed by the federal government. If stricter laws go into effect, our nation will erase much of the progress it has made towards equality and will decrease the amount of...
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...of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 signaled significant development, members of society often came to the conclusion that racial equality had been achieved. However, in reality, society was far from establishing this equality. Though, in writing, discrimination against individuals based on color could no longer take place, states still found ways to subtly put specific groups at a disadvantage. Even today, over half a century later, states continue to treat different groups of individuals unequally based on...
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...“Partisan Gerrymandering and the Voting Rights Act”, Richard Forgette and John Winkle provided a historical background on the decision: “In late April 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote affirmed the lower court judgment in Vieth and dismissed the plaintiffs' claims. On the issue of partisan gerrymandering, however, the ruling proved anything but conclusive. The significance of the ruling, it seems, now lies in its fractured set of opinions” The Justices’ split decision left the door open to reinterpreting the judiciable grounds for gerrymandering under the right circumstances. As displayed thus far, gerrymandering by Republicans has implied racial discrimination. While previous cases have...
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...The voting rights act of 1965 was written into law by President Lyndon Johnson on August 6th 1965, and it prevented African Americans from using their right to vote under the 15th amendment of the constitution. After the law was passed in 1965 more than 250,000 African Americans were registered to vote. The voting rights act of 1965 prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It helped more minorities be able to vote, the voting rights act came to pass during the civil rights movement. During this time many African Americans were facing many racial and segregating events. Around this time Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had just finished working and helping out in Birmingham, it was brought to his attention of Selma’s lack of voting and equal rights...
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...The Voting Rights Act of 1965 opened many doors for minorities that were prohibited from voting prior to 1965. During this time LBJ was in office an strived for equality between the sexes and races in terms of voting rights; the act prohibited literacy tests from being implemented during voting periods and allowed certain individuals that were denied registration to register for voting. Although the 15th amendment was in effect, many African Americans were still unable to vote due to denied registration or failing to pass the literacy test given before going to the ballots. Individuals that were in bad economic standings were also denied from voting due to being unable to pay the 1.50-1.75 dollar poll tax. The only individuals allowed to vote freely without any boundaries were men and women that were not of color, had good economic standing,capable of passing the literacy test, and property owners....
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...The 2016 general election is provoking a myriad of controversies. One of these controversies includes the new strict voting laws among fifteen states. The Voting Rights Act passed fifty years ago by Lyndon B. Johnson assures that every law-abiding American citizen can exercise their constituitional right. Evidently, voter fraud remains a current issue, requiring new and potential laws to take place this coming election. Kenneth T. Walsh from the Miami Times said, “since the Supreme Court ruling in June 2013, some states have followed up by imposing more restriction on voting, with local politicians arguing that they want to prevent fraud and make sure that there are clear and sensible standards for determining who can vote.”...
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...Gerrymandering in Texas Gerrymandering refers to the act of shaping of districts by acting majority party for their electoral gain at the cost of minority parties. Texas Senate redistricting was passed in May of 2011 and signed by the governor in the 82nd legislative session. The Texas attorney general petitioned a declaratory case under section five of the Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court ruled that the coverage formula for determining states and local governments fall under the Voting Right Act. Following these rulings, Texas County was allotted 36 congressional districts which paved the way for a congressional redistricting bill which was passed during the first called session in June of 2011. The process for creating a Congressional...
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...because of the Voting Rights Act. The Voting Rights Act says that states with a history of discrimination must get permission from the Federal Government before changing its voting process. Texas had its Voter ID upheld first in 2013, when a Supreme Court decision struck down what many considered the “heart” of the Voting Rights Act, the ability of the federal government to oversee the voting process in states with histories of discrimination. But in August of 2015, the Texas law was once again shot down by a federal appeals panel that ruled that the Texas law; regardless of intention “Discriminated again blacks Hispanics and...
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...instead was the result of being in compliance with the law. The Republicans, at the time, had increased the African American population in already predominantly African American districts, which had upset people because they believed that it was racial gerrymandering. The basis of the argument against opponents revolved around the idea of “one person, one vote.” Coupled with this equality that has been ingrained into society is the Voting Right Acts, more specifically Section Five, which stated that when redistricting, the same number of majority-minority districts was to be maintained along with the...
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...In 1901, Texas, a Democratic-overwhelmed state, passed a bill requiring the installation of a poll tax for voting, which disproportionately affects blacks, and poor whites and Latinos. Moreover, the lawmaking body built up white primaries, guaranteeing that minorities were barred from elections which were upheld until Smith v. Allwright in 1944. The number of voters dropped, and the Democrats dominated the state against the Republicans. The first step enfranchised oppressed voted to happen in 1918 when women were granted suffrage, thanks to the Nineteenth Amendment. In Baker v. Carr, in 1962 and Reynolds v. Sims, in 1964 forced Texas and other states to draw their legislative districts fairly according to the population. In 1965 the national government marked the Voting Rights Act, which was intended to uphold the voting rights of racial minorities. Even after the passing the Twenty-Fourth Amendment, Texas still required early registration, which mostly affected minorities, for voting until 1971. In 1993, the Motor Voter Law, which requires state governments to offer voter enlistment chances to any qualified individual who applies for or...
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...Matter of Auer v. Dressler Brief Facts: The President of R. Hoe & Co, Inc., refused to call a special meeting requested by Petitioners, class A stockholders. The trial court granted the mandamus to compel the special meeting Rule of Law: Class A stockholders have a right to call a special meeting to be heard on their disproval of management decisions, to elect and remove directors and to amend bylaws. Facts: Petitioners submitted a written request for a special meeting of class A stockholders to R. Hoe’s & Co., Inc.’s President, as permitted under the company’s bylaws. After the President failed to call a special meeting, Petitioners brought this present proceeding to compel it.The President claims that he failed to call a class A stockholder’s special meeting because the demand for the meeting was made by more than class A stockholders and none of the purposes given by Petitioners were proper grounds to call such a meeting. Petitioner’s primary purpose was to endorse and reinstate the former President, to hear charges against four of the class A directors, to remove them if the charges were proven, and to amend the by-laws so that the successor directors be elected by the class A stockholders and to require and that an effective quorum of directors be made up of no fewer than half of the directors in office and no fewer than one third of the whole authorized number of directors. The trial court granted the mandamus to compel the special meeting for the purposes...
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...Today, African Americans and other minorities are over-represented in the criminal justice system, but under-represented politically in the United States of America. Since well before its inception in 1776, the United States of America has been a nation characterized by white supremacy. In fact, modern day America may not exist if not for the taking of land from the Indigenous Peoples on this very premise. Today, many Americans believe they reside in a post-racial nation, citing the abolition of slavery in the 1860s. While racism has certainly been reduced in modern America, it is still ever-present in society, and more alarmingly, the criminal justice system. Today, the American criminal justice system is used as a front for state racism,...
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...Helder Andrade Prof. O’Donnell State & Local Politics 10/20/2014 Voting Requirements Effect on Turnout The right to vote is a very important aspect of United States government, the voting process present itself as the representative act that the fundamental basis to our Democratic system here in the USA. Unfortunately if you go back not even a century ago African Americans and women was denied this fundamental right to vote, securing the right to vote in United States was a long battle both for African-Americans and women. We can see how voting outcomes is essential to the true democratic process by having tight voting requirement it hinders the process and effects turnout. Voting Turnout, while undergoing new legislation since the repeal of the Jim Crow Laws, are still undergoing voting suppression, still disproportionately effecting racial minorities and the poor. To truly understand how voting requirements effect voter’s turnout we would have to look at the history of voting requirements in the U.S. Throughout United States history there have been many barriers that states have imposed that restrict voting rights especially for racial minorities and the poor. One requirement that definitely made voting a little more difficult was with requiring Americans to register prior to voting this meant that not only a citizen was care enough to go out and vote on election night they also must register prior to doing so. Registration was mainly intended to stop voter fraud...
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