The Click of a Button at the DMV... Well, at least for me...
- Vincent Rotondo
- Apr 11, 2020
- 4 min read
Authors Note: This element to my case study can be attributed to the following source: https://www.stc.org/techcomm/2018/11/08/technologies-of-disenfranchisement-literacy-tests-and-black-voters-in-the-us-from-1890-to-1965/ (Feel free to check it out!)
Prior to performing this case-study, I never realized how complicated the process of voter registration was for African Americans in the 1890s. Though I learned much material of substance about voting, with gratitude to my former educators, something I realize now is that I was never guided on how to approach the voter registration process. Did I actually have bad educators and now you can no longer look at my case study as a credible source? No! Voting registration requires little to no effort, as I registered to vote in my local DMV after obtaining my drivers license back in 2018. Although each state may vary on the procedures for issuing drivers licenses, the state of New Jersey makes it simple. (I am from New Jersey by the way) All I had to do was hand in some paperwork, take my picture, answer some questions on a screen, sign my name, and then I was good to go. In reference to the phrase, “answer some questions on a screen,” two of the asked questions appearing on the screen are in respect to voting. The first question asks if one wants to register to vote at this time and the second question asks for one to identify their political party affiliation. Today, voting registration is very simple, as it can be done in the click of two buttons at the local DMV; however, this was not always the case. If someone told me this two weeks ago, I would not have believed them because I did not have the necessary skills back then to challenge my voting literacy.
* From my experiences at the DMV, I find it crazy to hear so many individuals complaining that the question below is too difficult to answer. All you have to do is check one of the boxes and then you are registered to vote as an affiliate of the party you selected.
From performing this case study, I have since come to an awareness that the process of voter registration was not always so simple - especially for an eighteen year old African American male in the 1890s. The 1890s was a time of deeply rooted complexities from issues of race caused by white supremacists who did not want to see African Americans gain a footing in society. Many white people cheated the political system by issuing expensive poll taxes, difficult literacy tests, and ridiculous voter registration forms that disenfranchised African American voters without breaking the constitutional grounds laid by the Fifteenth Amendment. With regards to the process of voter registration, each applicant was required to “write a part of the Constitution from dictation, read four parts of the Constitution and answer four questions on it, answer four questions on the workings of government, and swear loyalty to the United States,” and if they were unable to successfully answer the questions on the document, then they were deemed as unfit of being able to vote (Jones & Williams 2018, 3).
* Below is the first page of an intensive Voter Registration Form from the 1960s; however, it was recycled from the 1890s.
Click the link to access the full document: https://www.crmvet.org/info/litapp.pdf
Under the Grandfather Clause of 1898, white people were able to expunge themselves from difficult tasks such as having to fill out long voter registration forms and taking literacy tests. The Grandfather Clause “meant that those who had enjoyed the right to vote prior to 1867, or their lineal descendants, would be exempt from educational, property, or tax requirements for voting,” and since African Americans were not granted the right to vote until 1870 under the Fifteenth Amendment, these clauses were effective in excluding African Americans from voting - it presented yet another negative message in regards to voting toward eighteen year African American males in the 1890s.
As for literacy tests, the examination was devised in a strategic manner that sets up every test taker for failure - especially most illiterate African Americans. An eighteen year old African American male, voting for the first time in the 1890s, would be discouraged from voting because of things like expensive poll taxes, literacy tests, and long forms that were very difficult to follow because they would have heard about these things from their elders. Their elders would most likely say that going through the process of becoming eligible to vote is not worth their time because the system is devised in a way to disenfranchise African Americans in the end. With such a negative message about voting, it is no wonder why an eighteen year old African American male in the 1890s felt discouraged from voting. Time is a precious commodity, and since the message circulated in the 1890s that there were documents put into place that made disenfranchisement of African Americans possible, voter turnout among African American groups depressed.
* Before you exit this element of my case study, I challenge you to take a literacy test - the same test an eighteen year old African American male took . Though I am not proud to admit it, I FAILED the test so hard, yet am still able to vote. Literacy tests determine nothing but your ability to solve ridiculous riddles, and I think that by you taking one, you will gain a greater sense of awareness of the messages an eighteen year old African American male in the 1890s received in regards to voting. Good luck - you are going to need it!
Disclaimer: You only have ten minutes to answer the questions and one wrong answers equates to a failing score! Though this literacy test is from 1965, these questions are recycled from the 1890s and suit the purposes of carrying out the messages an eighteen year old African American male received in regards to voting in the 1890s.
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