Voting: A Right or Privilege

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Voting A Right or Privilege?

• GOVT311 Lecture 3

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Voting

• Depend upon it, Sir, it is dangerous to open so
  fruitful a source of controversy and altercation
  as would be opened by attempting to alter the
  qualifications of voters there will be no end of
  itit tends to confound and destroy all
  distinctions, and prostrate all ranks to one
  common level. John Adams, 1776.
• Every man having evidence of attachment to, and
  permanent common interest with, the society,
  ought to share in its rights and privileges.
  George Mason, 1787.
• The ultimate end of all freedom is the enjoyment
  of a right of free suffrage. Maryland Gazette,
  1776.

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Suffrage in Colonial Times
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Suffrage in Colonial Times

• Property seven states explicitly set a value or
  acreage requirement of real estate. The
  remainder required a minimum personal property
  requirement (in SC, the payment of taxes was
  sufficient).

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Suffrage in Colonial Times

• Property provides
• Stake in society
• Independence from others
• A signal of competence

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Suffrage in Colonial Times

• Residency Many colonies instituted residency
  requirements. Some made citizenship of the
  colony or England a requirement.
• People who were explicitly barred
• Servants
• Paupers
• Women (some New England towns allowed widows)
• Non-White (African-Americans and Indians)
• Religion
• MA must be member of Congregational Church
• Catholics could not vote in 5 states
• Jews could not vote in 4 states

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Suffrage in Colonial Times

• Cities and Towns differed from Colony (or State)
  qualifications
• citizenship of a town was determined by having
  commercial affairs in the town (not a residence)
• Usually did not have a real estate property
  requirement
• In Virginia, this meant people with property in
  more than one town could legally vote twice

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Suffrage in Colonial Times

• Trends leading up to the Revolutionary War
• Some states broadened suffrage, relaxing
  religious tests and property requirements
• Other states instituted more strict property
  requirements and excluded particular classes of
  people (religion and race).
• Depending on the locality, 80-90 of white males
  were eligible (New England, South, and Frontier),
  40-50 in mid-Atlantic colonies

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Suffrage in the U.S. Constitution

• Does we the people mean universal suffrage (a
  right)?
• Would opening the franchise (a privilege) for a
  particular group, such as all white males, lead
  to universal suffrage?

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Suffrage in the U.S. Constitution

• Pro-Property Requirement
• Adams believed granting those without property
  the right to vote would lead to revolution open
  class warfare.
• Jefferson agreed that those without property were
  not independent, but saw the cure as giving
  property to everyone.
• Madison envisioned a future country where
  property-less would outnumber those with
  property. Either they would vote to take
  property, or would be corrupted by those with
  property.

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Suffrage in the U.S. Constitution

• Anti-Property Requirement
• Benjamin Franklin believed that voting was a
  natural right. Today a man owns a jackass worth
  fifty dollars and he is entitled to vote but
  before the next election the jackass diesNow
  gentlemen, pray inform me, in whom is the right
  of suffrage? In the man or in the jackass?
• Thomas Paine changed his mind, and favored
  universal suffrage after fighting alongside
  property-less men during the revolutionary war.

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Suffrage in the U.S. Constitution

• The worry
• Once the franchise was expanded, there would be
  no end to it according to Adams.

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Suffrage in the U.S. Constitution

• Alternative A taxpaying requirement
• Taxpayers have a stake in government
• Taxpayers have a right to protect themselves
  against unfair government policies, i.e., no
  taxation without representation.
• Consent of the governed if those who pay taxes
  cannot vote, they are encouraged to evade taxes.

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Suffrage in the U.S. Constitution

• Alternative Militia men
• Like taxpayers, have a stake in their government
• The franchise would belong to every man who pays
  his shot and bears his lot.
• A powerful argument that resonates today. Has
  been a primary way in which the franchise has
  been expanded through American history.
• Some states allowed militia men to vote in the
  convening of their (state) constitutional
  conventions. In Maryland, a rebellion ensued
  when militia men were not allowed to vote.

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Suffrage in the U.S. Constitution

• Our Founding Fathers could not agree and punted
  National voting requirements to the states
• Article I, Section 2
• The Electors (for the House of Representatives)
  in each state shall have the Qualifications
  requisite for Electors of the most numerous
  branch of the State Legislature.
• Article I, Section 4
• Guarantee every State in this Union a Republican
  form of government

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What the States Did

• GA, NY, and NC reduced their property
  requirements
• VT (only state without a government at the
  start of the revolutionary war) rescinded
  property and tax requirements
• MA increased property requirements
• All states dropped restrictions on Catholics and
  Jews (though in SC, a voter had to acknowledge
  there being a God.)
• Localities retained their independence in setting
  their local requirements many reduced or did
  away with property requirements.

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The 1842 Rhode Island Dorr War
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Long Term

• By allowing states to decide the franchise, the
  Founding Fathers set in motion a system that
  would have a troubling future, particularly for
  African-Americans.

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Suffrage Time-Line

• Original voters White, religious, male, property
  owners
• Early 1800s property requirement to tax
  requirement
• 1850s Restricted to citizens, registration
  requirements
• 1870 15th Amendment, Blacks granted vote
• By 1900 Black turnout levels in South are
  practically zero because of Jim Crow laws such
  as literacy tests, registration laws, secret
  ballot, etc.
• 1920 19th Amendment, women suffrage
• 1930s restrictions on paupers eased
• 1964 24th Amendment, repeal of poll taxes
• 1965 Voting Rights Act restores voting rights to
  Blacks
• 1972 26th Amendment, persons age 18-20 granted
  vote
• 2002 Help America Vote Act (the mechanics of
  voting)