Voter Turnout In America

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The United States is known as the land of opportunity and freedom, with citizens with such high regard of their country why are we ranked so low in voter turnout. America claims to be the role model of democracy but how can we make such a claim when the voter turnout has decreased more and more throughout the decades. This paper will discuss where this nation started and how every citizen fought for the right to suffrage. Great detail will be used when explaining what voter percentage is, what is affecting the percentage, and what could be done to combat said problems and raise the national voter percentage.
One of the main reasons the United States left Great Britain to become its own nation was due to not having a voice in the government …show more content…
The typical voter was usually a white male that owned property and over the age of twenty-one. In that time women did not have the right to vote because it was thought that women had the inability to deal with the harsh realities of politics. It was not until after the civil war that we saw a strong political split between the different regions of the United States. The northern states that supported the abolition of slavery became part of the republican party and that left the southern states that supported slavery became democrats. The south had a majority black community but through intimidation and legal measures they would not have the right to vote until 1965. The 15th amendment was passed in 1869 which stated that the right to vote shall not be denied of any citizen based on that citizen's race, or color, or previous condition of servitude. Like I previously stated even with that amendment passed Africans Americans still had difficulty voting especially in the south. Tactics such as poll taxing and literacy tests where used to keep the black community from exercising their …show more content…
Even with multiple bills in place people tried to discourage African American voting due to people being afraid it would disrupt the political status quo, but under the voting rights act the community finally had a means to challenge unjust voting treatment. Women where some of the last citizens to gain the right to vote, in fact it took around one hundred years to earn that right. It was understood when a woman got married she and the man became one, so his vote was her vote. In fact, there are a few women in history that pushed for women not to have the right to vote such as American author Laura Ingalls Wilder. One of the many challenges woman faced on their road towards suffrage was that men saw women as playing a more subvariant role. The women would stay home and take care of the house and kids while the men where the income earners, this led to the unequal treatment of women and their lack there right to vote. Women helping the war effort in the first World War helped solidify the fact that they are just as patriotic and deserving of every right that a man has. In 1920s the ninetieth amendment was passed, and women finally gained suffrage. In the 1930s during the Great Depression Franklin
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