Voting: Rights and Responsibilities

Ready to vote

Overview

In this three-part lesson students use primary sources to explore voting rights in the United States. In Part I, students analyze two sets of documents to gain a deeper understanding of how suffrage has been both expanded and suppressed, developing claims about how voting rights impact equality. In Part II, students further analyze one of the documents from Day One before taking on the role of a congressional committee charged with amending (or not) the Voting Rights Act to require compulsory voting. In Part III, students write their answer to the Essential Question, informed by class discussion and primary source analysis.

Related Resources

Grade

High School

Subjects

Civics, Social Studies

Length

80-100 minutes

Topics

compulsory voting, congress, equality, legislation, poll tax, responsibilities, role play, suffrage, voting, voting rights, voting rights act, voting rights reauthorization act, woman suffrage

Author

Citizen U CRF

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