Why Americans Don't Vote

17 Pages 4244 Words

The acquisition of political rights—including voting rights—has been a vital tool for every disempowered group in American’s history to achieve economic, social and civil rights and equality (Williamson, 1960; Porter, 1971). Because legislative bodies confer rights and make public policy, it is critical to possess the capacity to influence and/or select representatives. Legal barriers to political participation, however, have hampered the attainment of such rights by distinct classes of citizens, including African-Americans, women, and youth.
Previously excluded groups have gained access to the franchise principally through political struggle. They fought their way into the polity through political agitation, sometimes using the courts as a tool. Ultimately they needed the support of other sectors in society to win political rights. The agitation of the property-less encouraged sectors of the propertied to extend the franchise; the abolitionist movement and civil rights movements led whites to enfranchise blacks; the suffragettes compelled men to include women among the voting citizenry; and younger adults, whose participation in the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s, were granted voting rights by older adults.
Why not for immigrants too?
Although noncitizen immigrants behave in much the same ways as citizens, they possess fewer rights and benefits.1 Immigrants are subject to all laws and pay taxes, work in and/or own businesses, send their children to schools, serve in the military and can be drafted, and participate in all aspects of daily social life. Nevertheless, noncitizen immigrants are precluded from selecting those who fashion public policy and represent them at every level of governance. As Salvador Hernandez, a 40 year old immigrant from El Salvador who works for an organization called Centro Presente that promotes and supports immigrant civic
“Non-Citizen Voting: Pipe Dream or Possibility” by Ron Hay...