The first option looks at one of today’s most pressing political issues

OPTION 1- Voting Rights & Voter Suppression

The first option looks at one of today’s most pressing political
issues: that of voting rights and voter suppression. Read the
page, Voter Suppression: From Jim Crow through Today. After
the US Civil War, the national government expanded voting
rights to African Americans with the Fifteenth Amendment. In
response, Southern states enacted the notorious Jim Crow
laws, which included state and local governments restricting
these hard-won minority voting rights, and they stayed in
effect until the mid-twentieth century, when the federal
Voting Rights Act of 1965 put a stop to most of these voter
suppression efforts. This means that for almost a century,
Black Americans often did not have the ability to cast a vote
because of these state- and local-level restrictions, despite
the US Constitution clearly saying they could. A little over a
decade ago, the protections of the Voting Rights Act were
deemed by many to no longer be necessary and were
overturned. Today, since the 2020 election, 28 states have
passed laws that in some way impose more barriers on voting.
Supporters of these restrictive state voting laws claim they are
about improving security and stopping widespread voter fraud
(despite there being no evidence that this is a issue). Critics of
these state laws claim this is a major step backward and
represents a threat to American democracy. With this in mind,
address the following:

¢ Why are so many Americans so upset over the dozens
of state laws that are passing which restrict voting?
How do claims of “voter fraud” and fears over “election
security” play an ongoing role in maintaining voter
suppression in the US? Despite no evidence of
widespread voter fraud being a problem, is there any
good reason for these states to pass these laws? Why
or why not?

To what degree do you see connections between voter
suppression attempts by some states during Jim Crow
and these new laws passed in some states today?
Should voting be a right that should be easy and for
everyone? Or is voting a privilege that should be
reserved for those who deserve it? Explain.