tazzygirl
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quote:
ORIGINAL: philosophy
quote:
ORIGINAL: tazzygirl
So while many here believe its simply because you cant read write or 'rithmatic, its not that simple.
...yup, your analysis is correct as far as i can understand. However i was attempting to drive at a much more simple point. The founding fathers set up a system of voting based on certain assumptions regarding the ability of voters to actually vote. Did they consider literacy to be a necessary precursor to the ability to vote or not? If not, then to argue for literacy tests prior to voting is clearly unamerican.
Here is what i found about the founders...
Suffrage
Background
When the United States was founded, only white, male, property-owners were allowed to vote. The Founding Fathers felt that only property-owners would take this right of citizenship seriously since they owned a literal stake in the young nation.
During the early 1800s, the property requirement was lifted as the government became obligated to offer suffrage to veterans fighting for the United States. By the mid-1800s, one had to be a white male in order to vote, but did not need to own property.
Suffrage Amendments
15th (1870) Provided universal male suffrage (voting).
19th (1920) Provided female suffrage (voting).
24th (1964) Bans poll tax as a requirement for voting.
26th (1971) Set minimum voting age at 18.
African-American Suffrage
The early Women's Suffrage Movement and the Abolitionist Movement merged in order to achieve their common aims. However, after the Civil War, it soon became clear that while voting would be opened to all men, regardless of color, it would still be denied to women. The Fifteenth Amendment, passed in 1870, provided universal male suffrage. However, voting rights would soon be denied to African-American men.
After Reconstruction ended in 1876, voting rights were denied to African-American men through a variety of means, including the poll tax, literacy tests, and grandfather clause:
Post-Reconstruction Disenfranchisement
Poll Tax State laws that required that citizens pay a tax in order to be able to vote.
Literacy Test State laws that required that citizens demonstrate the ability to read in order to be able to vote.
Grandfather Clause State laws that required that citizens prove that their grandfather was eligible to vote in order to be able to vote themselves.
African-Americans were often uniformed or misled as to the date that poll taxes were due, thereby disqualifying their vote. The literacy tests administered to African-Americans were often much more difficult than those given to poor whites, causing them to fail. Since most freedmen had only been recently freed from slavery, their grandfather had definitely been slaves, making it impossible for them to meet the grandfather clauses enacted in many states. Thus, African-Americans were disenfranchised until the modern Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s.
The Civil Rights Movement renewed the struggle for African-American voting rights, resulting in the passage of a series of federal laws and an amendment to the Constitution
24th Amendment Banned the use of the poll tax.
Voting Rights Act of 1965 Banned the use of literacy tests and authorized Federal examiners to register African-Americans to vote if necessary.
Today, the African-American vote accounts for a large percentage of the electorate. Politicians carefully plan their election strategies and support for legislation and programs based on the needs of this group.
Women's Suffrage
The struggle for women's suffrage dates back to the early 1800s. By the mid-1800s, women had become organized under the leadership of women such as Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony.
In 1848, suffragists organized the Seneca Falls Convention in upstate New York. There, Stanton composed the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments which was modeled after the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments contained several resolutions including that a man should not withhold a woman's rights, take her property or refuse to allow her to vote.
Suffragists were greatly disappointed to learn that women were excluded from the Fifteenth Amendment that granted all men the right to vote. However, they continued to protest, march, and organize in the hope that they would soon be able to legally vote.
Finally in 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was passed which provided women with the right to vote.
Vietnam Conflict
Protest against the Vietnam Conflict also led to suffrage reform. At the time, eighteen-year olds were being drafted to fight by the United States in Vietnam. Many protestors pointed out that while these young men could be drafted, they were not eligible to vote until they had reached the age of twenty-one. The inequity was realized because these soldiers could not vote for a policy they were being forced to carry out, at risk of their own lives.
Subsequently, the Twenty-sixth Amendment was passed making the minimum voting age the same as the draft age of eighteen.
http://regentsprep.org/Regents/ushisgov/themes/reform/suffrage.htm
So, it shows that literacy was NOT a condition initially to vote... only that you are white and male. How many of us would have been left out on voting?
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RE: Tea Party speaker calls for voter literacy tests - 
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