Basics of Voting
The paper that people use to cast their votes
What is a ballot?
How old must you be to vote in a U.S. presidential election?
18 years old.
What is the name of the amendment that gave American men the right to vote regardless of race, according to our lesson?
The 15th Amendment.
What was a poll tax?
A fee people had to pay to vote.
What law was passed in 1965 to protect people's voting rights?
The Voting Rights Act of 1965.
A place where people go to vote called?
What is a polling location?
What is one requirement for voting in a U.S. presidential election?
You must be a U.S. citizen.
What did the 19th Amendment allow women to do?
Vote.
What was a literacy test?
A test that people had to pass to be allowed to vote.
Who led marches and protests during the Civil Rights Movement to fight for voting rights?
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Why do people vote? Name one reason.
To choose leaders who represent them or to have a say in government decisions.
When the United States was founded, which group of people could generally vote under many states' rules?
White men who owned property.
What did the 15th Amendment protect?
Voting!
Why were poll taxes unfair to poor people?
People who could not afford to pay were prevented from voting.
What did the Voting Rights Act protect people from?
Voting restrictions imposed because of their race or color.
If your class votes on whether to have pizza or burgers for lunch, what are you taking?
A poll!
By 1856, which group of people were still excluded from voting under the rules described in our slides?
White women.
What was the purpose of the 1965 Voting Rights Act?
To protect African Americans' right to vote by stopping racial discrimination and unfair voting rules, such as literacy tests.
How did some polling places unfairly use literacy tests against Black Americans?
They required Black Americans to take the tests and could fail them even when they did well.
Name one unfair voting practice that the lesson says the Voting Rights Act banned.
Poll taxes, literacy tests, or voter violence.
Why is voting a way for people to have a say in government?
Because people can choose their leaders and express their opinions about decisions.
Why wasn't having the right to vote always enough to ensure that everyone could actually vote?
Because states used unfair barriers, such as poll taxes, literacy tests, and violence, to stop people from voting.
Why did the 19th Amendment not immediately give all women equal access to voting?
Women of color continued to face discriminatory barriers that prevented them from voting.
Name two ways people were prevented from voting unfairly before the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Possible answers: poll taxes, discriminatory literacy tests, and violence or threats at polling places.
Why did civil rights activists demand the protection of voting rights, rather than just the right to vote?
Because having a legal right to vote did not guarantee that people could vote safely or without unfair barriers.