The right to vote — don’t take it for granted

By Dean Szanyi | Student reporter

At Sonoma Valley High School, I was among students taking U.S. History who were given a seemingly impossible assignment in class towards the end of the school year. The teacher had convinced us it was “Constitution Day,” and that the federal government requires all students to take a surprise Constitution test on that day. The students were instantly distressed, as they had not been taught the intricacies of the Constitution in years, and they did not remember the answers to most of the test questions – and some of those answers they had never learned in the first place. 

Sample questions below…

To make things even more stressful, we were given only 20 minutes to complete the entire test, which had more than 60 questions. Almost none of the students finished. After the 20 minutes had passed, the teacher began reading out the correct answers in class, so that the students could grade their own work.

Halfway through this process, the students were informed that the test did not actually count towards their grades at all, and there was no such thing as “Constitution Day.” Moreover, the test they were taking was actually a literacy test from 1965 that African-Americans in the South were forced to take, also in 20 minutes, before registering to vote: they could not earn that right if they did not pass. For the SVHS history students, the surprise element of the test, combined with its difficulty, put into perspective the struggles that marginalized groups of Americans have had to go through to earn the right to vote, the very act that defines our status as a democratic republic.

Despite the fact that voting is such an integral part of American government, the suppression of voting rights has been an unfortunate pattern in the United States. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was what finally brought an end to literacy tests like the one in question. Though it is currently illegal to prevent anyone from voting because of their demographic, voter suppression has remained an issue. And the counting of ballots is still a source of controversy, all the way up to the recent 2018 midterms.

It is troubling to think that a nation that prides itself on its democratic system would have such a long history of suppressing its citizens’ rights to vote, often based simply on their background. As the old saying goes, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” so it is important that the younger generation be aware of how much marginalized groups have struggled for their right to vote in the past. Voting is a fundamental American right, and it should be something that Americans always take full advantage of, and are always willing to defend.

Could you have passed the test?

Can you answer these sample questions from the 1965 Alabama literacy test, given to African-Americans before they could register to vote?

1. Appropriation of money for the armed services can be only for a period limited to how many years?
2. How many votes must a person receive in order to become President if the election is decided by the U.S. House of Representatives?
3. If it were proposed to join Alabama and Mississippi to form one state, what groups would have to vote approval in order for this to be done?

ANSWERS: 1) Two years. 2) 26 votes. 3) Congress and the legislature of both states.