The Second
Amendment, Voter Suppression and Safeguarding Election Integrity
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Author: Clyde Winters
Date:
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Time Frame:
2-3 Periods
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Proven
Practices (indicate which
practices used)
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Use of current & controversial issues
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Simulations of democratic practices
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Service Learning
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IL Social Studies
Standards:
SS.IS.1.9-12.
Address essential questions that reflect an enduring issue in the field.
SS.IS.5.9-12
Identify evidence that draws information from multiple sources to revise or
strengthen claims.
SS.IS.9.9-12. Use
deliberative processes and apply democratic strategies and procedures to
address local, regional or global concerns and take action in or out of
school.
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Lesson Objectives:
Students will distinguish between Voter Suppression and
citizens freely accessing their right to vote.
Students will create an ideological spectrum of Voter Suppression and Voter Access
statements.
Students will distinguish and examine State methods to
implement Voter Restrictions and the Court’s response to these laws.
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Essential Question: What role does voter suppression laws play
in Election Integrity and preventing citizens exercising their fundamental
constitutional right?
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Supporting Questions:
Identify the patterns State Legislatures use to restrict
voting rights.
Explain why different Courts might interpret differently
laws that are similar in the varied states.
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Wiki: Voter suppression in the United States, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_suppression_in_the_United_States
Voter Identification
Requirements | Voter ID Laws ,https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/voter-id.aspx
Con
Pro
Definitions:
Voter
suppression in the United States concerns allegations about various efforts, legal and illegal,
used to prevent eligible voters from exercising their right to vote.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed into law by
President Lyndon B. Johnson, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state
and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right
to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution.
The Fifteenth Amendment (Amendment XV) to the
United States Constitution prohibits the federal government and each state
from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that
citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." It was
ratified on February 3, 1870, as the third and last of the Reconstruction …
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is or was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. It seeks to end the legal distinctions between men and women in matters of divorce, property, employment, and other matters. |
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Recommended Procedures:
Day
1
1.
Organize the
students into groups of four.
2.
Define the
following terms for the students: Voting Rights Act of 1965, Fifteenth Amendment;
and Equal Rights Amendment. Explain that these laws supplement the 2nd
Amendment that guarantees all American Citizens the right to Vote
3.
Explain that
both advocates of voter restrictions and supporters of open access to voting
claim they are protecting your right to vote ; and that although both groups
claim to be furthering the right to vote voter restrictions lead to voters
being eliminated from voter rolls.
4.
Tell the
students there are four ways to illegally vote. They are 1) Vote in Someone
else’s name; 2) register at multiple locations to vote; vote when they are
not eligible to vote and; 4) pay or intimidate people to vote.
5.
Distribute to
the students Handout 1: Voter Suppression. Tell students that State
Legislatures use a number of ways to legally restrict the voting rights of
citizens. Next call on one of the Students to begin reading the Handout.
6.
Give the
Students Handout 2: Voter Suppression
Statements. Read the directions and tell the students to complete the
Handout.
Day 2-3
1.
Explain to the
students that that Liberals claim that Voting Rights are under attack. To disenfranchise minority groups State Legislatures are
attempting to cut back on early voting, enact voter ID laws and making it
hard to vote by send people to the wrong precinct to vote.
2.
Write the Web address of the Brennan Center for
Justice `on the Board: https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/2019-11/New%20Voting%20Restrictions.pdf
3.
Explain to the
students that they are to go to this site and chose 2-3 states where
lawmakers have instituted voting restrictions. They are to compare and
contrast how the States’ made it harder for people to vote. The members of
each group will answer three questions 1) What was the law how did it
restrict people from voting? 2) What was the court’s response to the law
restricting voting rights? 3) Was the law a legitimate response to voter
fraud in your opinion?
4.
Tell the
students they will make 3-5 slides to answer these questions. Slide 1: Title page. Slide 2-3 Describe
each State’s Restrictive Law. Slide 4 Compare the State Restrictive laws.
Slide 5 give us your opinion relating to the laws discussed in your
Presentation.
5.
Provide time
for the students to review the Brennan material in class.
6.
Students after
completion of their research will present their findings to the class.
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Possible Service
Learning Extensions:
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Possible Assessments:
Debrief the students by having them complete Handout 1: Voter Suppression ; and the slide
presentation of each group
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Create
an Informative Essay or Slides on Voter Suppression
You will pick and
research a to write an informative essay on.
- Step One: Two States
- What Voter Suppression tactic
is used in the State
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Voter IDs
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Ex Convicts removed from Voter rolls
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Caging list
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Purge Voter Rolls
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·
Step Two: Research your
topic Helpful Websites:
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Wiki: Voter suppression in the United States, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_suppression_in_the_United_States
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- Step Three: Organizing your
paper (Slides)
- Pull out the important
information from your websites, and book/encyclopedia on your topic
by filling in your power notes outline. (Fill out the power notes by
typing key ideas under each topic in the colored box).
- Be sure to find facts,
details, and examples to support your points.
Power Notes
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A.) Introduce your States (paragraph 1).
A.) What are the Voting policies of
State 1 (paragraph 2).
A.) What are the Voting policies of State 2
(paragraph 3)?
A.) Compare Voting policies of States 1 and
2 (paragraph 4)?
A.) What is your opinion of State policies
(paragraph 5)?
A.) Conclusion Paragraph (Slide) 6
A.) References: Where
did you get your information from? (at end of essay) Copy & paste
the websites you found your information from, type the name of your book
& the author’s name.
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- Step 4: Writing your paper
- Take the information
from your power notes (colored boxes) to form sentences that will create
paragraphs. Your paragraphs should be at least 4 sentences.
- Power Note A will be your
topic sentence for each paragraph while power notes B & C will be
your support.
- Your information should be
paraphrased (put into your own words) DO NOT Copy your
information directly from a website!
- Your essay is just information.
There will be no images, video, ect. (You will use those things in
your multimedia presentation).
- Be sure to use correct
spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar.
- Begin typing on the next page.
This will be your title page and should include; your first and last
name, and the title of the natural disaster you're doing your essay on.
- Be sure to ask the teacher(s)
in the room if you have any questions.
Handout: Voter suppression in the United States From Wikipedia,
Purging of voter role
In
1998, Florida created
the Florida Central Voter File to combat vote fraud
documented in the 1997 Miami mayoral election. Many people were purged from
voter registration lists in Florida because their names were similar to those
of convicted felons, who were not allowed to vote at that time under Florida
law. However, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, nearly 89% of felons convicted in Florida
are black; therefore, a purge of convicted felons could be expected to include
a disproportionately high number of blacks
Between November 2015 and early 2016, over
120,000 voters were dropped from rolls in Brooklyn, New York.[2] Officials have
stated that the purge was a mistake and that those dropped represented a
"broad cross-section" of the electorate. In 2008, more than 98,000
registered Georgia voters
were removed from the roll of voters because of a computer mismatch in their
personal identification information. Some 4,500 voters had to prove their
citizenship to regain their right to vote.
Georgia was challenged for requesting
Social Security records for verification checks on about 2 million voters. That
was more requests than any other state. In 2019, presiding circuit court
Judge Paul
V. Malloy of Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, removed 234,000 voters
from the statewide rolls. ruling that state law compelled him to do so.[6]
Limitations on early and absentee voting
In North Carolina, Republican lawmakers
requested data on various voting practices, broken down by race. They then
passed laws that restricted voting and registration many ways that
disproportionally affected African Americans, including cutting back on early
voting.[7][8] In a 2016 appellate court case,
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit struck down a law that removed
the first week of early voting. The court held that the GOP used the data they
gathered to remove the first week of early voting because more African American
voters voted during that week, and African American voters were more likely to
vote for Democrats.[9]
Voting procedure disinformation involves
giving voters false information about when and how to vote, leading them to fail
to cast valid ballots.
Caging lists: Voter
caging
Caging lists have been used by political
parties to eliminate potential voters registered with other political parties.
A political party sends registered mail to
addresses of registered voters. If the mail is returned as undeliverable, the
mailing organization uses that fact to challenge the registration, arguing that because the voter could not be
reached at the address, the registration is fraudulent.[17]
In July 2016, a federal appeals court found
that a 2011 Texas voter ID law discriminated against black and Hispanic voters
because only a few types of ID were allowed; for example, military IDs
and concealed
carry permits were allowed, but state employee photo IDs and
university photo IDs were not.[18] In August 2017, an
updated version of the same Texas voter ID law was found unconstitutional in
federal district court The court also ruled that the law would force some
voters to spend money traveling to a government office to update their
identification information; the court compared this provision to a poll tax.[20]
During the 21st century, several states
with Republican-controlled governments passed restrictive voter ID laws
affecting identification cards for college students (a liberal-leaning
demographic group).
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