This essay is to be 5 pages double spaced in apa format
Voting Rights and Voter Suppression Paper
THIS ESSAY IS TO BE 5 PAGES DOUBLE SPACED IN APA FORMAT
Prompt Context: The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was created to enfranchise African Americans and other minority voters, who had been subjected to poll taxes, literacy tests, terror and murder as methods of voter suppression throughout the Jim Crow South since the end of Reconstruction. The Voting Rights Act was successful as measured by steady increases in the numbers of African Americans registered to vote. However, in Sheldon County v. Holder, parts of the Voting Rights Act were struck down by the Supreme Court, making it easier for some states to change their voting laws without seeking permission from the Department of Justice. Claiming that voter fraud was on the rise, state governments made it more difficult for African Americans, Latinos and youth to vote. More recently, the president has argued that mail-in voting will create voter fraud and has gone so far as to question the legitimacy of the election this November.
1)Paper Prompt: Explain how and why the United States has gone from protecting voting rights and expanding the vote to voter suppression. Is voter suppression a threat to U.S. Democracy?
In answering the prompt, please make sure you respond to the following questions:
2)What is the purpose of the Voting Rights Act of 1965?
3)What are the effects of the Shelby County v. Holder decision?
4)What is the difference between in-person voting fraud and election fraud? (hint: A Dream Undone)
5)What forms of voter suppression were put in place after Shelby County v. Holder?
6)Do you think that voter suppression is something to be concerned about? Is it a threat to U.S. democracy?
7)The president has said several times that mail-in voting leads to voting fraud. He has also suggested that if he loses it will be because of voter fraud. Is the president trying to undermine the legitimacy of the election?
Required Readings for Voting Rights and Voter Suppression ESSAY
1)Jim Rutenberg. 2015 (July 29). “A Dream Undone: Inside the 50-Year Campaign to Roll Back the Voting Rights Act.” The New York Times Magazine.
2)Ginsberg, Benjamin, Theodore J. Lowi, Margaret Weir and Caroline Tolbert, We the People. New York and London: W.W. Norton. Chapter Five.
3)Theodore Johnson and Max Feldman. 2020 (January 16). “The New Voter Suppression.” New York City: The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/new-voter-suppression
4)“What the Postal Service Crisis Means for the November Election.” 2020 (August 19).
New York City: The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School
5)Zack Stanton. 2020 (September 3) “The Lawsuits that Could Decide the 2020 Election.” Politico
6)American Civil Liberties Union. 2020 (February 3). “Block the Vote. Voter Suppression in 2020.”
https://www.aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/block-the-vote-voter-suppression-in-2020/
7)Richard North Patterson. 2020 (July 28). “Donald Trump vs Democracy.” The Bulwark.
