POLS 230 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Gun Control, Voting Age, Originalism

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Political Studies
• Course: POLS 230
• Professor: Catherine Conaghan

Document Summary

Week 4 lecture: voter turnout and public opinion. The last month is critical because early voting is underway in certain states. States are the entities that organize the voting process. They have the responsibility to organize their own processes and has resulted in a lack of uniformity when it comes to voting (no same day of registration on election day). Voter registration has improved over time (motor voter registration, mail-in voter registration, online registration, etc. i. e. no-excuse absentee voting, early voting, early voting and no-excuse absentee voting, all-mail voting, no early voting, & excuse required for absentee. High voter turnout means more minorities are voting as well as youth. Voter turnout makes a difference in outcomes and the quality of democracy. 1870: 15th amendment, removes race and color prohibitions on vote (note that this didn"t stop people from deterring african americans from voting- i. e. literacy tests). 1965: voting rights act (prohibited means to keep african americans from voting)