Voting rights throughout the years

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In 1845, Texas was founded as a state.

At the Texas Constitutional Convention, the right to vote for women was deemed "unwomanly".  The 15th amendment passed in 1870, but many Texans were against readmission to the Union and did not want to give voting rights to the freed Black men.  Despite this, 13 Black men were elected to the 12th legislature.

In 1893 the Texas Equal Rights Association was formed with about 50 members and was the first statewide women's suffrage organization in Texas.  In 1902, Texans start charging voters to vote by using poll taxes.  In 1903, the Texas Woman Suffrage Association was formed.

The Terrell Law was passed in 1905.  This law created a direct-primary system that was used for all state, district, and county elective offices in Texas.  In 1915, the Texas Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage was created but failed to gain momentum.  Despite that, a resolution failed in the Texas Legislature that would have given women the right to vote.

In 1916, the Texas Woman Suffrage Association was renamed the Texas Equal Suffrage Association.  In 1918, the Texas Legislature enacted a law that allowed women to vote in primary elections.  

In 1919 a public vote to amend the constitution failed, but it would have given women the right to vote while also denying the right to vote to "non-citizen aliens".  The Texas Legislature became the 9th state to ratify the 19th amendment in June of 1919.  The Texas Equal Suffrage Association was dissolved and became the League of Women Voters of Texas.

After many years of hard work from suffragettes all over the country, the 19th amendment passes.  

In 1923 Texas passes a white primary law that makes it legal to ban African Americans from primary elections.  The law is struck down by the Supreme Court in 1927.  In retaliation, the Texas Legislature passes a law that allows political parties to set their own voter qualifications.  In 1932, the Democratic Party passed a white primary resolution.

The Supreme Court overturned a ruling they made in 1935 that allowed Texas' Democratic Party to not allow Black people to vote in the primary election, citing that primary elections are a very important part of the electoral process.  

In 1964 the 24th amendment is ratified, which bans the use of poll taxes.  The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is signed into law on August 6th of 1965.  This banned denying voting rights because of their race, color, or condition of servitude.  It also put in many protections to help protect the right to vote.

From 1966 to 1971, Texas required people to register to vote annually.  In 1971, the 26th amendment passed which lowered the voting age to 18.

In 1975 Texas had to start providing election materials in languages other than English for voters who weren't fluent in the language.  Texas now has election materials in Spanish, which is one of the most spoken languages in Texas.  In 1993, voter registration became available in places like the Department of Vehicles and other public assistance and disability agencies.

Massive voter reform is passed after the disputed 2000 presidential election, including funding for newer and updated voting technologies.

In 2011 the Texas Legislature enacted a bill requiring one of seven forms of acceptable identification to vote in person.  Under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, this had to be pre-cleared by the Justice Department, so Texas couldn't implement the law until 2013 when the requirement for pre-clearance was removed by the Supreme Court.  This is one example of many discriminatory voting laws that were implemented after the 2013 Supreme Court decision.

The Texas Legislature passed a voting law that will greatly restrict voting rights.  This law either restricts or bans things like mail-in voting, drive-through voting, and 24 hour voting days.  It also extends the "rights" of poll watchers, which could allow them to intimidate as well as oversee.  This law comes after many false claims of rampant voter fraud, although there is no proof behind these claims.

At the founding of the U.S., the idea of representative democracy was fairly new.   Voting laws were left mostly up to the states.  White, male, property-owning citizens of certain religious groups were allowed to vote, amounting to 6% of the population.  

In 1790, Asian Americans were denied their right to vote.  Two years later, the state of New Hampshire granted suffrage to poor white men and lifted the requirement of owning property to vote.  In 1798, white, male, immigrants were allowed to vote after living in the U.S. for 14 years.

Religious affiliation and property qualifications to vote begin to be eliminated.  This means that poor white men could now vote, as well as white men who were not Christians.

The women's rights convention is held in Seneca Falls.  Some states in the Southwest allow literate, male, bilingual, property-owning Mexicans to vote.

The first literacy test as a requirement to vote is enacted by the state of Connecticut.  By now, most states had eliminated the requirement of having to own property to vote.

Most native-born Americans were granted U.S. citizenship, although they were not guaranteed the right to vote.  Native Americans were excluded from this, and many different ethnic groups faced challenges related to being denied citizenship in the future.

In 1868 the 14th amendment passes, and in 1870 the 15th amendment passes.  The 14th amendment made African Americans citizens, and supposedly gave them equal protection under the law.  The 15th amendment technically allowed black men to vote, but many restrictions have been put in place since then making it harder for black men to vote.  In 1869, Wyoming granted women the right to vote.

In 1872, some women attempted to vote in the presidential election, but they were either denied or arrested.  In 1876, the Supreme Court ruled that Native Americans were not citizens.

In 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed.  This act denied citizenship to Chinese Americans, therefore not allowing them to vote.  

In 1884 the Supreme Court denies Native Americans in Nebraska the right to vote.  In 1887 the Dawes General Allotment Act passed which gave U.S. citizenship to Native Americans only if they relinquished their tribal citizenship and ideologies.  

In 1888 Florida instated a poll tax that denied many African American men the right to vote.  The Eight Box Law let Florida through away ballots legally.  The Eight Box Law made it so each type of office had a different ballot box and if someone put their ballot for one type of ballot in the ballot box for a different type of office then the state could throw away that ballot.  There were also Eight Box Laws in other states.

Native Americans are now allowed to apply for citizenship because of the passage Indian Naturalization Act.

Many forms of voter suppression are introduced in many states.  Often these were voting requirements that discriminated against voters of color and poor voters.  Other times violence and intimidation tactics were carried out by the white citizens in the area.  Some of the voter suppression tactics used during the Jim Crow era were literacy tests, poll taxes, and grandfather clauses.

The requirement drops from 14 years to 5 years for how long you have to live in the U.S. before becoming a citizen, which would subsequently give people the ability to vote.  This only applied mostly to white men, as women were not allowed to vote yet in most states and there were many xenophobic laws in place preventing immigration from certain countries.

In 1915 the Supreme Court ruled that grandfather clauses were unconstitutional.  Many marches were held all over the country leading up to the 19th amendment, which finally passed in 1920.  Native Americans were granted citizenship if they served in WWI.

In the case Takao Ozawa v. United States in 1921, the Supreme Court denied U.S. citizenship to people of Japanese descent.  In 1923 the Supreme Court ruled that Hindus were Caucasians, which made them eligible for citizenship in the case Bhagat Singh Thind v. United States.  The Indian Citizenship Act passed, granting Native Americans born in the U.S. citizenship.  Individual states still denied Native Americans the right to vote.  Filipinos could only become citizens if they served for three years in the Navy.

in 1937, the Supreme Court rules that Georgia is allowed to have poll taxes.  In 1940, only 3% of African Americans were registered to vote in many Southern States.

In 1946 the Supreme Court ruled in the case King v. Chapman that the "white primary only" practice was unconstitutional.  In 1947 the Supreme Court ruled in the case Elmore v. rice that South Carolina's white primary law was unconstitutional.  New Mexico and Arizona were now required to give the right to vote to all Native Americans, but they did not make it easy for them to vote.

American-born Japanese Americans and all people of Asian descent were granted citizenship by the McCarran-Walter Act.  The Civil Rights Act of 1957 gave the Department of Justice the right to initiate lawsuits on behalf of African Americans if they are denied the right to vote.

in 1959 the Supreme Court rules that literacy tests in North Carolina do not violate people's constitutional rights in the case Lassiter v. Northampton County Board of Elections.  The Civil Rights Act of 1960 allowed African Americans to vote at federal if they are denied the right to register to vote.

In 1961 the 23rd amendment passed, which allowed residents of the District of Columbia to vote in presidential elections.  Supreme Court ruled in the case Baker v. Carr that states had to redraw district lines based on the population of each district, rather than according to race or political affiliation.

In 1963 MLK Jr. helped lead the "March on Washington", advocating for the rights of African Americans, including the right to vote.  In 1964 the 24th amendment passed which declared that the use of poll taxes in presidential and congressional elections is unconstitutional.  The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed which declared that nobody can be discriminated against based on their gender, religion, race, or nationality.

Protesters organize marches from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama and are attacked by police on a day that comes to be known as "Bloody Sunday".  The Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed by Lyndon B. Johnson, is passed, stating that the national government would take action against anyone who unconstitutionally limited the voting rights of minority groups.  "Preclearance" was also now required for states that had a history of voter suppression.  Literacy tests were also declared unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court ruled in the case South Carolina v. Katzenbach rules that the fifteenth amendment allows Congress to prevent voter discrimination and that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 gave the federal government the ability to protect the right to vote of African Americans.  The first black senator from Massachusetts, Edward Brooke, was elected to office.  

In 1968 nine African Americans were elected to the U.S. Congress, including the first African American woman, Shirley Chrisholm.  In 1970 President Richard Nixon renews the provisions set in the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  Southern states received approval for changes to their voting laws and procedures.

In 1971 the 26th amendment is ratified, allowing 18 year-olds to vote.  In 1972 a Tennessee law requiring voters to have livd in the state for one year and that specific county for three months to be eligible to vote is struck down by the Supreme Court in the case Dunn v. Blumstein.  Barbara Jordan and Andrew Young are the first African Americans elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Southern states in almost 100 years.

In 1974 the Supreme Court rules in the case Richardson v. Ramirez that states can deny the right to vote to convicted felons.  In 1975 the Supreme Court rules that the redistricting lines in Texas were gerrymandered and therefore unconstitutional.  An amendment to the Voting Rights Act require some voting materials to be printed in languages other than English.  Areas with large amount of voters whose primary languages wasn't English were required to have assistance and voting materials at the polls in languages other than English.

In 1980 the Supreme Court rules in the case City of Mobile v. Bolden that racial discrimination has to be proven by the discriminated voter.  This has often been considered a major setback in voting rights.  In 1982 President Ronald Reagan signed the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act for 25 more years.  New protections are also added for the illiterate, disabled, and blind.

In 1990 the Americans with Disability Act requires election workers and poling sites to provide services that support disabled voters.  In 1993 the National Voter Registration Act (also known as the Motor Voter Act) passes which requires states to accept voter registration by mail and allows citizens to register to vote when getting their drivers license or at vehicle registration sites, public libraries, schools, and other public buildings like unemployment and welfare offices and other state agencies.  In the first year of implementation 30 million people used some means created by the law to register to vote.

In 2000 the federal court ruled that Puerto Ricans are citizens but cannot vote in presidential elections or have representation in Congress, as well as residents of Guam, American Samoa, or the U.S. Virgin Islands.  The disputed 2000 presidential election highlights the inconsistencies and outdates systems used to vote.  The Help America Vote Act is passed in response to the 2000 presidential election.  It provides funding to states to help them pay for replacing old voting machines and election procedures.  

In 2006 the Supreme Court ruled in the case League of Latin American Citizens v. Perry that the Texas redistricting plans were unconstitutional and violated the Voting Rights Act.  In 2008 the Supreme Court overturned the law requiring government-issued photo identification cards to vote in the case Crawford v. Marion County.  In 2009 the Military and Overseas Empowerment Act passed which allowed military and non-military American citizens serving in a foreign country to get voter registration cards and absentee ballots that could be submitted electronically or by mail.

Many states passed laws that require photo ID, make cuts to early voting or restrict voting registration.  Many of these laws got blocked from being implemented by the Department of Justice because these laws were mostly created by states that had to get approval from the Department of Justice for changes to their voting laws and procedures.  Then, in 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that the section of the Voting Rights Act that required pre-clearance for voting changes for states with histories of voter suppression was unconstitutional.  States no longer had to have their laws approved, leading to an onslaught of voter suppression.

Since the 2016 election, there have been many claims of voter fraud, which are unsupported by evidence.  In the decade before the 2018 elections, and especially since the 2013 Supreme Court decision 23 states hace created new obstacles to vote.  The 2020 Census will most likely lead to extreme gerrymandering around the country, which could silence the voices of many minority communities.