GOV CH 6-2 VOTER QUALIFICATIONS

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Multiple Choice
Identify the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.

2 Universal Requirements
Today, every State requires that any person who wants to vote must be able to satisfy qualifications based on three factors: (1) citizenship, (2) residence, and (3) age. The States have some leeway in shaping the details of the first two of these factors; they have almost no discretion with regard to the third one.

Citizenship
Aliens—foreign-born residents who have not become citizens—are generally denied the right to vote in the United States. Still, nothing in the Constitution says that aliens cannot vote, and any State could allow them to do so if it chose. At one time about a fourth of the States permitted those aliens who had applied for naturalization to vote. Typically, the western States did so to help attract settlers.6

Only two States now draw any distinction between native-born and naturalized citizens with regard to suffrage. The Minnesota constitution requires a person to have been an American citizen for at least three months before he or she can vote in elections there. And the Pennsylvania constitution says that one must have become a citizen at least one month before an election in order to vote in that State.

Which of the requirements below do the states have no authority to change?

a.	Residence	c.	How long a person must live in the state to vote
b.	Citizenship	d.	Age

What does the U.S. Constitution say about allowing aliens to vote?

a.	Aliens may not vote in the United States	c.	Aliens can vote if they are legal aliens
b.	Nothing	d.	Aliens need a green card to vote

3 Residence
In order to vote in this country today, one must be a legal resident of the State in which he or she wishes to cast a ballot. In most States a person must have lived in the State for at least a certain period of time before he or she can vote.

The States adopted residence requirements for two reasons: (1) to keep a political machine from importing (bribing) enough outsiders to affect the outcome of local elections (a once common practice), and (2) to allow new voters at least some time to become familiar with the candidates and issues in an election.

For decades, every State imposed a fairly lengthy residence requirement—typically, a year in the State, 60 or 90 days in the county, and 30 days in the local precinct or ward.7 The requirement was a longer one in some southern States—for example, one year in the State, six months in the county, and three months in the precinct in Alabama, Louisiana, and South Carolina, and a year in the State, a year in the county, and six months in the precinct in Mississippi.

Residence requirements are not nearly so long today. In fact, most States now require that a voter be a legal resident but attach no time period to that qualification. About a fourth of them say that a voter must have lived in a State for at least 30 days. In a few, the period is somewhat shorter—for example, 29 days in Arizona, 28 in Kentucky, 20 in Minnesota, and 10 in Wisconsin.8

Today’s much shorter requirements are a direct result of a 1970 law and a 1972 Supreme Court decision. In the Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1970, Congress banned any requirement of longer than 30 days for voting in presidential elections.9 In Dunn v. Blumstein, 1972, the Supreme Court found Tennessee’s requirement—at the time, a year in the State and 90 days in the county—unconstitutional. The Court held such a lengthy requirement to be an unsupportable discrimination against new residents and so in conflict with the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. The Supreme Court said that “30 days appears to be an ample period of time.” Election law and practice among the States quickly accepted that standard

Nearly every State does prohibit transients, persons living in the State for only a short time, from gaining a legal residence there. Thus, a traveling sales agent, a member of the armed services, or a college student usually cannot vote in a State where he or she has only a temporary physical residence. In several States, however, the courts have held that college students who claim the campus community as their legal residence can vote there.

In order to vote in the U.S. today a citizen must be .....

a.	a legal resident of any state in the United States	c.	at least working on the process of becoming a citizen of the U.S.
b.	a natural citizen of the United States	d.	a legal resident of the state they are voting in

What did the Voting Rights Act of 1970 ban regarding state residency?

a.	States cannot require residency for more than 90 days in presidential elections	c.	The Voting Rights Act said nothing about state residency requirements
b.	States cannot require residency for more than 30 days in presidential elections	d.	States cannot require citizens to reside in the states they are voting from in presidential elections

What did the Supreme Court rule in the Dunn v. Blumstein, case?

a.	If you require citizens to be residents for too long a time it is a form of discrimination against new residents	c.	The states cannot require citizens to be residents of the state they are voting from
b.	Resident aliens have a right to vote just like any other citizen of the state	d.	Illegal aliens cannot vote

What part of the constitution did the Supreme Court use in its Dunn v. Blumstein, ruling?

a.	14th Amendment which guarantees equal protection of the law for all citizens	c.	The free speech section of the 1st Amendment to the Constitution
b.	15th Amendment which guarantees Black men the right to vote	d.	The 20th Amendment which guarantees women the right to vote

What do most of the states say about transients and voting?

a.	Transients can vote like any other citizen of the state	c.	College students cannot vote
b.	Transients cannot vote in the state	d.	Military persons can vote in any state because they represent the entire United States

Age
The 26th Amendment, added to the Constitution in 1971, declares:
From The Constitution
“The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.”
—26th Amendment

Thus, no State may set the minimum age for voting in any election at more than 18. In other words, the amendment extends suffrage to citizens who are at least 18 years of age. Notice, however, that any State could set the age at less than 18, if it chose to do so.

Until the 26th Amendment was adopted, the generally accepted age requirement for voting was 21. In fact, up to 1970, only four States had put the age under 21. Georgia was the first State to allow 18-year-olds to vote; it did so in 1943, in the midst of World War II. Kentucky followed suit in 1955. Alaska entered the Union in 1959 with the voting age set at 19, and Hawaii became a State later that same year with a voting age of 20.

Both Alaska and Hawaii set the age above 18 but below 21 to avoid potential problems caused by high school students voting in local school-district elections. Whatever the fears at the time, there have been no such problems in any State since the passage of the 26th Amendment.

Efforts to lower the voting age to 18 nationwide began in the 1940s, during World War II. These efforts were capped by the adoption of the 26th Amendment in 1971, during the war in Vietnam. That amendment was ratified more quickly than any other amendment to the Constitution. This fact is testament to the emotional weight of the principal argument in its favor: “Old enough to fight, old enough to vote.”

How have 18-to-20-year-olds responded to the 26th Amendment? In short, not very well. In election after election, young voters are much less likely to vote than any other age group in the electorate. In 1972, 48 percent of the 18-to-20 age group voted, but by 2000 that figure had plummeted to 28 percent. It did rise in 2004, and substantially—to nearly 38 percent. But contrast that figure with the turnout of Americans 65 and older. Despite the infirmities that may accompany their age, their rate regularly exceeds 60 percent, and it did so again in 2004.

In a growing number of States, some 17-year-olds can now cast ballots in primary elections. Those States allow anyone whose 18th birthday falls after the primary but before the general election to vote in the primary election.

One State, Nebraska, has come very close to effectively lowering the voting age to 17 for all elections. There, any person who will be 18 by the Tuesday following the first Monday in November can qualify to vote in any election held during that calendar year.

Which Amendment gave 18 year olds the right to vote?

a.	15th	c.	20th
b.	17th	d.	26th

When did the push to allow 18 year olds to vote start?

a.	During the Viet Nam war in the 1970’s	c.	During the Korean War in the 1950’s
b.	During World War II in the 1940’s	d.	During the Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s

10.

What does the Constitution say about allowing people younger than 18 to vote?

a.	States can allow citizens younger than 18 to vote	c.	Only the United States can determine how young a person needs to be to vote
b.	States cannot allow citizens younger than 18 to vote	d.	Only resident aliens are allowed to vote if they are younger than 18

Other Qualifications
The States have imposed a number of other qualifications over time—notably, requirements based on literacy, tax payment, and registration. Only registration has survived as a significant requirement.

Registration
Forty-nine States—all except North Dakota—require that most or all voters be registered to vote. Registration is a procedure of voter identification intended to prevent fraudulent voting. It gives election officials a list of those persons who are qualified to vote in an election. Several States also use voter registration to identify voters in terms of their party preference and, thus, their eligibility to take part in closed primaries.

Voter registration became a common feature of State election law in the early 1900s. Today, most States require all voters to register in order to vote in any election held within the State. A few do not impose the requirement for all elections, however. In Wisconsin, for example, only those in urban areas must register to vote.10

Typically, a prospective voter must register his or her name, age, place of birth, present address, length of residence, and similar facts. The information is logged by a local official, usually a registrar of elections or the county clerk. A voter typically remains registered unless or until he or she moves, dies, is convicted of a serious crime, or is committed to a mental institution.

State law directs local election officials to review the lists of registered voters and to remove the names of those who are no longer eligible to vote. This process is known as purging, and it is usually supposed to be done every two or four years. Unfortunately, the requirement is often ignored. Where it is, the poll books (the official lists of qualified voters in each precinct) soon become clogged with the names of a great many people who, for one reason or another, are no longer eligible to vote.

11.

What is the main purpose of registration?

a.	raise money for the political parties	c.	to prevent voter fraud
b.	spy on the electorate	d.	motivate citizens to vote

12.

What do they call it when election officials review registration lists and remove persons who are no longer eligible to vote?

a.	fracking	c.	purging
b.	tracking	d.	burning

13.

What happens when the poll books are not purged for a long time?

a.	voter lists become overloaded with names of people not eligible to vote	c.	voters on the list are not allowed to vote
b.	the voting precincts are shut down	d.	voter lists (poll books) are destroyed and everyone has to re-register

Most people who have studied the problem favor keeping the registration requirement as a necessary defense against fraud. However, they also favor making the process a more convenient one. In short, they see the problem in these terms: Where is the line between making it so easy to vote that fraud is encouraged, and making it so difficult that legitimate voting is discouraged?

Most States have eased the registration process over the last several years, and in 1993 Congress passed a law that required every State (but North Dakota) to do so. That law, dubbed the “Motor Voter Law,” became effective in 1995. It directs every State to (1) allow all eligible citizens to register to vote when they apply for or renew a driver’s license; (2) provide for voter registration by mail; and (3) make registration forms available at the local offices of State employment, welfare, and other social service agencies. The Federal Election Commission reports that by 2000 some 8 million persons had registered to vote as a direct result of the Motor Voter Law.

The law also requires every State to mail a questionnaire to each of its registered voters every four years, so that the poll books can be purged for deaths and changes of residence. It also forbids the States to purge for any other reason, including failure to vote.

Maine and Wisconsin allow voters to register at any time, up to and including election day. Elsewhere a voter must be registered by some date before an election, often 20 or 30 days beforehand.11 That cutoff gives election officials time to prepare the poll books for an upcoming election.

14.

Most states require citizens to register

a.	a month to twenty days before election day	c.	one year prior to election day
b.	by election day	d.	six months prior to election day

Literacy
Today, no State has a suffrage qualification based on voter literacy—a person’s ability to read or write. At one time, the literacy requirement could be, and in many places was, used to make sure that a qualified voter had the capacity to cast an informed ballot. It also was used unfairly in many places to prevent or discourage certain groups from voting. For many years, it was a device to keep African Americans from voting in parts of the South, and Native Americans and Latinos from voting in the West and Southwest.

Some literacy requirements called for potential voters to prove they had the ability to read; other States required proof of the ability to both read and write. Still others required the ability to read, write, and “understand” some printed material, usually a passage taken from the State or Federal Constitution. Often, whites were asked to “understand” short, plainly worded passages; African Americans were faced with long and highly complex passages.

A grandfather clause was added to the Louisiana constitution in 1895; Alabama, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Virginia soon added them as well. These clauses stated that any man, or his male descendants, who had voted in the State before the adoption of the 15th Amendment (1870) could become a legal voter without regard to any literacy or taxpaying qualifications. The Supreme Court found the Oklahoma provision, the last to be adopted (in 1910), in conflict with the 15th Amendment in Guinn v. United States in 1915.

A number of States outside the South also adopted literacy qualifications: Wyoming in 1889, California in 1894, Washington in 1896, New Hampshire in 1902, Arizona in 1913, New York in 1921, Oregon in 1924, and Alaska in 1949. Its unfair use finally led Congress to eliminate literacy as a suffrage qualification in the Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1970. The Supreme Court agreed in Oregon v. Mitchell, 1970:
Primary Sources
“In enacting the literacy test ban … Congress had before it a long history of the discriminatory use of literacy tests to disfranchise voters on account of their race.”
—Justice Hugo Black, Opinion of the Court

At the time Congress banned literacy tests, 18 States had some form of literacy requirement.

15.

How many states have a literacy requirement for voting?

a.	four	c.	nine
b.	seven	d.	none

16.

What was the purpose of the literacy requirement for voting?

a.	to make sure that everyone could vote	c.	to encourage reading among the voting public
b.	to keep some groups from voting	d.	to encourage students to stay in school

17.

What was the purpose of “grandfathering” voters who might not be able to read?

a.	to allow black men to vote	c.	to enable non-reading whites to vote
b.	to allow black women	d.	to enable all black people to vote

18.

What did the supreme court rule in the Guinn v. United States in 1915?

a.	Grandfathering was okay in Oklahoma	c.	Grandfathering was a state matter
b.	Grandfathering was in violation of the 15th Amendment	d.	Since voting is a state matter, the supreme court has no authority to rule against grandfathering in Oklahoma

19.

What law did congress pass in 1970 to finally eliminate literacy as a voting requirement?

a.	The Immigration Act of 1970	c.	Voting Rights Act
b.	War on poverty	d.	20th Amendment

Tax Payment
Property ownership, proved by the payment of property taxes, was once a very common suffrage qualification. For decades several States also demanded the payment of a special tax, called the poll tax, as a condition for voting. Those requirements and others that called for the payment of a tax in order to vote have disappeared.

The poll tax was once found throughout the South. Beginning with Florida in 1889, each of the 11 southern States adopted the poll tax as part of their effort to discourage voting by African Americans. The device proved to be of only limited effectiveness, however. That fact, and opposition to the use of the poll tax from within the South as well as elsewhere, led most of those States to abandon it. By 1966, the poll tax was still in use only in Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia.12

The 24th Amendment, ratified in 1964, outlawed the poll tax, or any other tax, as a condition for voting in any federal election. The Supreme Court finally eliminated the poll tax as a qualification for voting in all elections in 1966. In Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, the Court held the Virginia poll tax to be in conflict with the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. The Court could find no reasonable relationship between the act of voting on the one hand and the payment of a tax on the other.

20.

What is the special tax called that is required of people before they can vote?

a.	Poll tax	c.	State Income tax
b.	SSI tax	d.	Motor Voter tax

21.

Which amendment to the constitution in 1964 outlawed the poll tax?

a.	23rd Amendment	c.	25th Amendment
b.	24th Amendment	d.	26th Amendment

22.

In Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections the Supreme Court outlawed all poll taxes based on

a.	the 5th Amendment which forbid double jeopardy	c.	the 20th Amendment which allowed women to vote
b.	the 15 Amendment which allowed black men to voter	d.	the 14th Amendment which says that the laws have to be applied equally to everyone

Multiple Response
Identify one or more choices that best complete the statement or answer the question.

Section 2 Voter Qualifications

All of the States set citizenship, residence, and age requirements for voting.
Other voting qualifications have been imposed by various States over time. Literacy tests and tax payment have been eliminated; registration is required in all but one State today

Objectives
Identify the universal requirements for voting in the United States.
Explain the other requirements that States have used or still use as voting qual

Why It Matters
All States have citizenship, residence, and age requirements for voting. Other voting qualifications differ from State to State. Some requirements—especially those that were used to disenfranchise certain groups—have been eliminated over time.

Political Dictionary
transient
Person living in a State for only a short time, without legal residence
registration
A procedure of voter identification intended to prevent fraudulent voting.
purge
The process of reviewing lists of registered voters and removing the names of those no longer eligible to vote; a purification
poll books
List of all registered voters in each precinct
literacy
A person’s ability to read or write
poll tax
A special tax, demanded by States, as a condition of voting

23.

What are the two objectives of this lesson? (pick 2)

a.	explain how voting has evolved over the years	c.	explain the methods used by Southern Democrat states to keep minorities from voting
b.	explain the requirements for voting for everyone in the United States	d.	explain requirements used by the states for voting

24.

What is the difference between a natural citizen and a naturalized citizen? (pick two)

a.	A natural citizen is born in the U.S.	c.	A natural citizen is born outside a hospital
b.	A naturalized citizen is born outside the U.S. but becomes a citizen later	d.	A naturalized citizen is born inside a hospital

25.

Why did the states adopt residency requirements for citizens to vote? (pick 2)

a.	To keep people from moving out of their states	c.	To give the people time to know the candidates and issues
b.	Keep corrupt politicians from bringing outsiders in to vote in local elections	d.	To broaden the tax base of the local community

26.

Once a person registers to vote, they remain registered unless (check all that apply)

a.	they die	c.	they are convicted of a serious crime
b.	they move	d.	they are committed to a mental institution

27.

What does the “motor voter” process do to encourage people to register. (check all that apply)

a.	allow registration when people apply for a drivers license	d.	make registrations forms available at most government offices
b.	allow people to register by mail	e.	allow mental patients to register
c.	allow prisoners to register