Every American 18 or over has the right to vote. However, African Americans, women, and first time voters hold a special responsibility to exercise that right. Abraham Lincoln once described democracy as “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” but for so long these groups have been marginalized and belittled.

The 15th Amendment to the Constitution prohibits federal or state governments from infringing on a citizen’s right to vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” However, a quick look back into history books will attest to the fact that this idealized Amendment actually did not change anything. Many disingenuous plans to keep African Americans from exercising their rights were successfully put in place to ensure the 15th Amendment did not succeed. These plans include but are not limited to: literacy tests (that some white men failed but were able to vote due to the racist “grandfather clause”), poll taxes and just downright discrimination at the poll booths. A Supreme Court ruling in 1898, Williams v. Mississippi, ruled that literacy tests and poll taxes “do not viloate the constitution.” It was not until the civil rights movement, and later the Civil Rights Act of 1960 that established federal inspection of local voter registration polls and introduced penalties for anyone who attempted to block a citizen’s attempt to register to vote or to actually vote that African Americans were finally able to vote without complications.

The Seneca Falls Woman’s Rights Convention was held on July 19th and 20th 1848, led by Elizabeth Caty Stanton and Lucretia Mott, and was the first women’s rights convention. It was there that the seventy-two year fight to ensure women the right to vote began. This suffragist fight included jail time, force-feeding and oppression and abuse from male and even female opposition. Supporters of the women suffragist movement fought on into WWI, and their persistence helped win support for the constitutional amendment that would allow women the right to vote. On Aug 26 1920 the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution officially guaranteed women the right to vote, a whopping seventy-two years after the fight began.

It wasn’t until 1972 that people 18 and over could vote. That election 50% of 18 to 24 year olds cast their ballots, according to American Demographics magazine. However, apathy has fallen over the young people of today, and during the last election only 32% of 18 to 24 year olds exercised their voting rights. Many first time voters and young people feel intimidated or unmotivated to register and vote. Often as a young voter we feel overwhelmed by the voting process, and unimportant. Organizations such as Rock the Vote and MTV’s Choose or Lose incorporate music and pop culture to engage young people in the voting process, and walking them through this process. Online organizations such as BotherVoting.org also walk young people through the voting registration process, while offering witty e-cards to send to friends.

Voting is an American right that directly affects you as an individual. African Americans, women, and young people are all underrepresented groups and in the case of African Americans and women these groups have fought hard and even died for this right you so easily take advantage of. Whether it is for the free sticker you receive at the end of voting or the rush you get after wielding political power, voting is an American right all of us must participate in to honor our nations history.

Roosevelt Voter Registrar, Cindy DeMarco

“First time voters, whether 18 or 80 years of age, know that voting is a process: registering, being informed, then voting. But it doesn’t end there, whoever gets elected must be held accountable. Stay aware, stay involved, use your voice.”

African American History Teacher, Nikki Marchmon-Boykin

“We stand on the shoulders of those who fought and died. African Americans should be informed and vote.“

Women’s Literature Teacher, Pam Harr

“Knowing everything women went through to give future women the right to vote, it would be disrespectful to their memories to not excersise the right that they earned for us”