Entries Categorized with "Right to Vote Amendment"
- 30 of 31 results
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Rossello v. United States and the Right to Vote for Puerto Rico
- Posted: July 5, 2011
- Author(s): Jo McKeegan
- Categories: Home, Right to Vote Amendment, Universal Voter Registration, FairVote
Brought in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights by former governor of Puerto Rico Pedro Rossello, Rossello v. United States addresses the lack of a right to cast a ballot and have such ballots counted in national elections for president and Congress by residents of Puerto Rico. Petitioner Rossello has been disenfranchised, along with all other residents of Puerto Rico, despite his American citizenship, based solely on his area of residence within the United States. The case raises larger issues about voting rights for Americans who live in American "colonies" that are not states. -
What if the Right to Vote Started at Birth?
- Posted: June 17, 2011
- Author(s): Nate Crippes
- Categories: Home, Right to Vote Amendment
Journalist Jonathan Bernstein has raised an interesting question: at what age should we be allowed to begin voting? More specifically, should citizens be given the right to vote at birth, with our parents voting for us before we're capable (Bernstein suggests the ripe old age of 15 for voting on one's own)? It's certainly an interesting theory. FairVote is not endorsing such a position, but we do think it would be interesting to look at both sides of the issue, grounded in the fact that if we treat voting as a right, we should only limit rights for very good reasons.
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The Right to Vote Blog: Put more money into politics?
- Posted: June 1, 2011
- Author(s): Right to Vote Blog, Jo McKeegan
- Categories: Home, Right to Vote Amendment, FairVote
“Let’s put more money into politics!” is a rallying cry that won’t win over too many supporters.
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RTV: Money doesn’t grow on trees
- Posted: May 4, 2011
- Author(s): Right to Vote Blog, Jo McKeegan
- Categories: Home, Right to Vote Amendment
Recently, several states have backed policies that likely will disenfranchise large numbers of their citizens in the name of reducing the deficit and becoming more efficient; policies involving filling vacancies, and maintaining voter rolls.
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Voting: A Right, A Privilege, or A Responsibility?
- Posted: April 20, 2011
- Author(s): Right to Vote Blog, Dean Searcy
- Categories: Home, Right to Vote Amendment, 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): Right to Vote Blog, Jo McKeegan
- Categories: Home, D.C. Voting Rights, Right to Vote Amendment, 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): Right to Vote Blog, Jo McKeegan
- Categories: Home, Right to Vote Amendment, 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): Right to Vote Blog, Jo McKeegan
- Categories: Home, Right to Vote Amendment, Universal Voter Registration
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): Right to Vote Blog, Rob Richie
- Categories: Home, Right to Vote Amendment, 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): Right to Vote Blog, Jo McKeegan
- 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.