Content Categorized with "Right to Vote Amendment"
21 - 30 of 49 results
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Voting: A Right, A Privilege, or A Responsibility?
- Posted: April 20, 2011
- Author(s): Dean Searcy, Right to Vote Blog
- Categories: Right to Vote Amendment, Home, FairVote
When Americans talk about their democracy, they typically emphasize the importance of the right to vote. But the fact is that, unlike other democratic rights protected in the First Amendment, voting rights do not have clear constitutional protections. State legislatures have the right to appoint electors in presidential races without holding elections, for example, and states can enact a variety of policies that directly or indirectly infringe on suffrage rights. While strengthening voting rights in the Constitution would seem like a logical step, there's a potential political barrier: confusion about the meaning of "right."
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The Right to Vote: The case of the people of our nation's capital
- Posted: April 14, 2011
- Author(s): , Jo McKeegan, Right to Vote Blog
- Categories: D.C. Voting Rights, Right to Vote Amendment, Home, FairVote
Although the District has a delegate in the U.S. House (Eleanor Holmes Norton) who can propose legislation and serve on committee, she does not have voting rights in Congress. The District lacks even a delegate in the U.S. Senate, even though Congress can veto any bill passed by the District and often considers “riders’ on bills that would change laws governing the residents of the District – a classic case of “taxation without representation.”
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The Constitutional Right to Vote Blog: Assumptions
- Posted: March 21, 2011
- Author(s): , Jo McKeegan, Right to Vote Blog
- Categories: Right to Vote Amendment, Home, FairVote
You’ve heard the assumptions: Young people vote Democratic. So do unmarried women, African Americans, city-dwellers and people with felony convictions. Church-goers vote Republican, as do rich people, small business owners and soldiers. If you somehow fit into categories from each group, who knows, you may be a Libertarian or Green.
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The Right to Vote Blog: The Root Cause of Maryland Voter Registration Failures
- Posted: March 4, 2011
- Author(s): , Jo McKeegan, Right to Vote Blog
- Categories: Right to Vote Amendment, Universal Voter Registration, Home
What if you thought you had gone through the process of making sure you could vote, but later were denied the chance to do so on Election Day?
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The Constitutional Right To Vote Blog:The Debate over Voter Identification at the Polls: Expanding our Vision
- Posted: February 14, 2011
- Author(s): , Rob Richie, Right to Vote Blog
- Categories: Right to Vote Amendment, Home, FairVote
The right to vote is at the heart of representative democracy. Upholding that right requires that every eligible voter should have easy access to voting, every vote should be tallied accurately and no ineligible vote should be cast. Both limiting access to voting and allowing fraudulent votes undercut determination of the "consent of the governed."
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The Constitutional Right to Vote Blog: Felon Disenfranchisement in Iowa
- Posted: January 20, 2011
- Author(s): , Jo McKeegan, Right to Vote Blog
- Categories: Right to Vote Amendment, Felon Disenfranchisement, FairVote
Iowa is a poster child for what it means to fail to protect our right to vote in the U.S. Constitution: fundamental democratic rights can then be tossed around like a political football.
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The Constitutional Right to Vote Blog: Bush v. Gore, Ten Years Later
- Posted: December 14, 2010
- Author(s): , Jo McKeegan, Right to Vote Blog
- Categories: National Popular Vote, Right to Vote Amendment, FairVote
Ten years ago, in December of 2000, the Supreme Court decided Bush v. Gore. The case remains one of the more dividing litmus tests in American politics.
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Being Pro-Voter is Not Partisan: 2010 Results Underscore how Republicans should not Fear Same-Day Voter Registration
- Posted: November 22, 2010
- Author(s): , Rob Richie
- Categories: Right to Vote Amendment, FairVote
Upholding fair voter access and protecting voting rights should not be a partisan issue. In our decentralized system, however, some states do a better job at protecting these rights than others. Take for instance, the issue of Same Day Voter Registration (SDR); a sensible reform when implemented well which all too often has been inaccurately thought to advantage one major party (Democrats) at the expense of another (Republicans).
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Constitutional Right to Vote Blog: The Right to Vote- More Precious than a Bag of Chips
- Posted: November 18, 2010
- Author(s): , Jo McKeegan
- Categories: Right to Vote Amendment, Felon Disenfranchisement
Prior to 2007 in Maryland, a person could have been disenfranchised for committing a variety of “infamous crimes” including the misdemeanor titled “unlawful operation of vending machines”.
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The Constitutional Right to Vote Blog: What elections tell us about how we protect the vote
- Posted: November 3, 2010
- Author(s): , Jo McKeegan
- Categories: Right to Vote Amendment
Without clear constitutional protections, each individual citizen’s right to have a vote cast properly on Election Day is not constitutionally ensured. Missteps can and should be avoided with proper investment, training and attention to the mechanics of our elections. Voter apathy could be at least partially addressed with better civic education, starting in schools, but continuing into adult life with resources like voter guides. Until voting becomes a specifically enumerated right, we can expect to see concerns continue.