Introduction

An essential feature of our form of government is the right of thecitizen to participate in the governmental process. The politicalphilosophy of the Declaration of Independence is that governmentsderive their just powers from the consent of the governed; and theright to a voice in the selection of officers of government on the partof all citizens is important, not only as a means of insuring that government shall have the strength of popular support, but also as ameans of securing to the individual citizen proper consideration ofhis rights by those in power. 1

The freedom of a democratic system is not that its people are free of

law, but that they are free to make and enforce their own law throughelected representatives. It follows that freedom to vote is the cornerstoneof democracy.

One of the glories of America has been the constant expansion of thesuffrage. As the Commission pointed out in its 1959 Report, this evolutionary experience marks an effort to achieve something very close togovernment by all the people. 2 Yet, the Commission also pointed outin 1959 that "many Americans . . . are denied the franchise becauseof race. . . . There exists here a striking gap between our principlesand our every day practices." 8 Today, 2 years later, this gap has notbeen closed.

Virtually no one publicly defends racial discrimination at the polls.The Supreme Court has held it unconstitutional. Congress has outlawedit. Yet it persists. In some States there is an effort to restrict Negrosuffrage. 4

If "the disfranchised can never speak with the same force as those

who are able to vote," 8 it follows that they are apt to suffer in otherways. The Commission's studies indicate that this is in fact the case;

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deprivations of the right to vote tend to go hand in hand with otherdeprivations. 6 Indeed this is tacitly recognized by many organizationsthat oppose the Supreme Court's school desegregation decisions2014for animportant thrust of their effort has been to restrict Negro suffrage. 7 It

may not necessarily follow that freedom to vote automatically assuresfull enjoyment of all other rights, but it is clearly a helpful tool forsecuring them. As a Negro witness put it at the Commission's Louisianahearing: "So, you see, we have nobody to represent us, on the jury,school board office, the State legislature, nowhere. All the laws arebeing passed we have no voice in, whether it is for us or against us,and I don't think you can find many that is for us." 8

NATURE OF THE RIGHT

In the election of candidates for State and local offices the suffrage maybe conferred or withheld by each State according to its own standards, 9

but even in such elections, States are not wholly unrestricted. Two

provisions of the Constitution, the 15th and i gth amendments, explicitlyapply to the States as well as...

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