- Elections, especially in democracy, control political
  behavior/decisions
    - The system can be manipulated
    - The gov't doesn't represent everybody; it represents voters
        - Young people don't vote, so they aren't pandered to
            - Belief that the issues being discussed are distant
        - So you need to participate
            - Because your future is being decided now

How Dr. Rich socializes his kids to their civic duty
- Mocked up ballot box, voter ID, "I voted" stickers
- Brings his kids to the polls, or involves them with mail-in ballots
- Election participation is a civic duty
    - Has a profound impact
    - Ex: suffrage rights

"All men are created equal" was in no way correct. Liberalist idealism
- In some states, only 10% voted.
- Property qualifications, "economic stake=political stake"

Suffrage is now, in the letter of the law, for every adult citizen who
hasn't "violated their civic responsibility" (like prisoners).
How did it develop over time?
- African Americans
    - 1865-70 "Civil War Amendments"
    - (Only) during Reconstruction--2 black people elected to Senate and
      14 to House
        - After Reconstruction ends with Union soldiers leaving, they
          get redisenfranchised.
        - After 1901, next to serve was 1972
            - Southerners did much of the active prohibition of voting
            - But federal gov't and many Northerners stood by
        - Literacy tests and "Character tests" (very low pass rate)
        - Employer permission to vote
        - Restrictions on voter registration
    - 1965 Voting Rights Act
        - An active law; funding withheld from states
        - Turnout was low in first few years, but they eventually
          returned.
- Women
    - Could, sometimes, inherit property from husbands or male
      relatives.
    - When only property determined voting rights, women could vote.
    - But by 1910, only 4 states had given women the right to vote.
    - Powerful interests opposed suffrage
        - Southern whites didn't
        - Manufacturers didn't
            - because women would vote against child labor (very cheap)
        - Catholic Church
            - "Vote is contrary to the proper role of women"
    - British women's suffrage movement
        - Gave a playbook/methods for influencing change
        - Cannot be a private act; must be public like marches,
          protests
        - Also have to make those in power (men) care about the issue
            - Women boycott domestic work
        - Well-timed, uses WWI. 19th Amendment 1920