Essay #2

Universal suffrage is the right to vote to all adults. Any body can vote regardless distinction of sex, race, belief or economical/social status. In first modern "democracy" only certain people had a say in the government.In the US only white male landowners could vote, then there waas the 3/5 Compromise which means that slaves only count as 3/5 of a vote.Then in 1870, an amendment was pass. This gave the right to vote for all former slaves and protecting the right of all male citizen of any race.Then in 1889, there were poll taxes (pay to vote), which prevented many blacks as well as poor whites from voting. In 1890, there was a literacy test, to keep African-Americans from voting because many could not read, this also prevented many whites.To get around this, the states added the grandfather clause. This allow those who could vote before 1870, or their descendants, to vote regardless of literacy or tax qualifications. This excluded African-Americans because none of them could have voted before 1870.

Next comes women voting rights. Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott organize the Women's Rights Convention, then along with Susan Anthiny and Lucy Stone, they establish the American Equal Rights Association. Then in 1890, the National American Woman Suffrage Association was establish.These organizationtry to persuade the legislature to allow full suffrage to women.Then the woman suffrage amendment was propose in Congress many times but was defeated. Finally on August 26 1920, the Nineteenth amendment was pass allowing all sex the right to vote. In 1965, the voting rights act was pass. This prohibits all literacy tests and poll taxes.

In Trania, you don't have to worry about your voting rights. In the US, it took them over 60 years for them to have universal suffrage and some countries took even longer than that.An example is the country Kuwait who just had been granted universal suffage in 2005. Here you already have that right. Since this is a democracy there are no racial discrimination. Everybody is equal.Everybody has the same voting power. So if 100 blacks vote for one thing and 100 whites vote for another then they will be equal.There are no poll taxes to pay when voting and literacy test. The only restriction is that you have to be 18 or older to be able to vote and you don't vote on any bills. All you do is vote for your representative and during election, you vote for your president (although the electoral college does the actual voting).

There are recent news about universal suffrage. The news comes from China. Apparently China's legislature ruled out direct elections for the Hong Kong chief executive in 2007 and legislators in 2008. There will be no universal suffrage for the election of the third-term chief executive of the HKSAR in 2007 and the election of all the members of the fourth-term legislative council.This ruling was pass with 156 for, one abstention and no negative votes. The procedure for voting on bills and motions, however, remain unchange.

Links
http://www.answers.com/topic/universal-suffrage
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAvoting65.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/timelines/voting.html
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAsuffrage.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/1965_voting_rights_act.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0839551.html
http://www.mscode.com/usconst/a-19.html
http://www.sparknotes.com/history/american/constitution/terms/term_C.17.html
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=810455
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-04/27/content_326702.htm