Voting has evolved tremendously since the beginning of ourcountry. It has gone from being a privilege for a small wealthyclass of males to a duty for all American adults.
To help us understand the importance of voting, I am going tosort through the history of the changes in voting laws andpractices. The original draft of the Constitution gave all maleproperty owners over the age of 21 the right to vote. A series ofacts within the next 50 years changed it so all white men over theage of 21 could vote. Then soon after the Civil War, the 15thAmendment gave all men over 21 suffrage, although at that pointmany southern states put into place voting laws that would subtlykeep former slaves from voting. After another 50 years theConstitution was amended again to allow women over 21 the right tovote.
The next voting law that came into to place was anotherConstitutional amendment that outlawed polling taxes that statestried to charge to keep the poor from voting. The next moveoutlawed literacy test that states had been using to keepminorities from voting. The next law was the 26th Amendment to theConstitution. It lowered the voting age to 18 around the country.Since the lowering of the voting age, there have been small changesin voting laws.
So after that history lesson you may be asking "What the Helldoes this have to do with me?"
Well, that is a valid question. What I am saying here is bylooking back, I can find at least one instance in the history of mycountry that I, as I am right now, could not have voted, as manyother people haven't been able to in the past.
When this country was founded voting was such a big deal, andwhat many saw as a privilege, that the founding fathers wanted tokeep it to an exclusive group of wealthy people. The lawmakers onlysaw one group of people worthy of having a voice. They soon saw theerror of their ways when many people fought for this right thatshould be respected by everyone.
The fight for the right to vote was not that long ago. There arestill those who are proud to have this right, yet there are manythat don't use it.
It has taken almost the entire life of our country to grant alllegal adults the right to vote.
So when next Tuesday comes remember that many people have foughtfor you to have this right, why would you just throw it away by notparticipating in the process?
Write to Steve at
smbristow@gmail.com
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