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Article: Voting rights restored.(Legislative Issues)
- Article from:
- Corrections Today
- Article date:
- October 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 American Correctional Association, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Throughout much of the latter part of the 1900s, America was engaged in a struggle to ensure equal voting rights for all Americans. The U.S. Constitution did not include any specific provisions on voting rights until the adoption of the 15th Amendment in 1870. This amendment provided, specifically, that the right to vote shall not be denied or abridged on the basis of race, color or previous condition of servitude, suspending state laws that had directly prohibited minority voting. However, several states soon turned to less direct methods to disenfranchise populations, including poll taxes, literacy tests, vouchers of "good character" and disqualification for "crimes of ...