Voters and Voter Behavior
Chapter 6
The Right to Vote
Chapter 6
Section 1
The History of Voting Rights
• What does suffrage mean? What does
franchise mean?
• When the Constitution went into effect, what
group of people made up the electorate?
• Roughly how many people made up the
electorate in 2004?
• In what ways has suffrage been extended
throughout our nation’s history?
Extending Suffrage: The 5 Stages
1. What restrictions were lifted by the mid-19th
century (1850)
2. What restriction was lifted following the Civil
War (1870)?
3. How did the 19th Amendment expand
suffrage?
4. What events during the 1960s extended
suffrage?
5. What did the 26th Amendment do?
The Power to set Voting Qualifications
• What level of government has the power to
set voting qualifications?
• What restrictions has the federal government
placed upon the States in setting these
qualifications?