World War II Through the 1970sAssignment 3: World War II through the 1970sIn 1939 World War II began, and through the 1970s many major historical turning points occurred. The United Nations was established on October 24, 1945. It was the second multipurpose international organization created in the 20th century (Encyclopedia Britannica). The United States, United Kingdom and the Soviet Union took direction in designing, structure and decision making of the new organization. With a worldwide membership and scope, the purpose of the United Nations was to maintain security and peace among countries, as well as working on developing friendly relations. According to the United Nations Charter, it aims:
“to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,…to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights,…to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.”
NATO, short for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, was established by military alliance on April 4, 1949. Its quest was to develop a counterweight to Soviet armies. Original NATO members were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States . The core of NATO is expressed in Article 5 of North Atlantic Treaty, which its members agree that, “an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all; and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defense recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.” (The History Channel)
President John F. Kennedy proposed the Civil Rights Act in 1963, which was a highly contentious issue at the time. One of the longest debates in the history of the Senate occurred in which a stronger version was eventually passed by President Lyndon Johnson on July 2, 1964. The act was intended to end discrimination which was based on race, color, religion, or national origin. It is often referred to as the most important United States law on civil rights since the reconstruction era (1865-77). Title I of the act guarantees equal voting rights by removing registration requirements and actions biased against minorities and the under privileged. White groups opposed the Civil Rights Act and it was instantly challenged and upheld by the Supreme Court in the case of Heart of Atlanta Motel v. U.S. (Encyclopedia Britannica).
The Voting Rights Act would later become the landmark civil rights act of the 20th century. The Act protected the right to vote regardless of race and therefore no racial or ethnic group, class, or political subdivision could be excluded from the voting booth. It also provided some security to minority members and they had more equal right of access than white people to buy their own mail and vote in presidential elections—as long as the voter knew the person they were voting for, and they did not want to be seen voting against their “concern.” A voter’s right to vote was limited and those who wanted to use it became legal. The Court, however, was conservative in their approach. The Civil Rights Act did not do away with race, class, or political subdivision or limit any state rights to vote. The Voting Rights Act made it more difficult for voting in presidential elections, because there were only two ways of getting a vote for each candidate. Both the First and Second Circumstances of the Voting Rights Act affected voting and all of those who lost their right to vote. It was also important to preserve voting in American society because these issues had become less prevalent than they were because of the Voting Rights Act.
The Voting Rights Act changed some of the legal requirements for absentee-federal elections by granting voter registration to persons who had been registered for at least one election. Such persons were eligible to cast a provisional vote but there were other conditions like eligibility to vote before their expiration date. States could be reluctant to provide absentee-federal voting if there wasn’t enough support for their primary candidates for election in advance of the election — as long as the electoral college was broken into two or more states.
The Voting Rights Act was not only used for absentee-federal elections, but for state-wide voting in many counties. As the early voting began on September 18, 1964, the majority of states began to pass the legislation requiring their electors to vote in the official election. But the majority did not immediately stop the practice of voting absentee in the national vote until the 1960 elections. (On August 26, 1964, more than half the states passed an act requiring them to not use absentee ballots, but this issue may not have been included in the Voting Rights Act because states were not in the early stages of implementing it.) During the voting process, absentee ballots were used in an average of three electoral votes. A large number of counties used electronic voting machines (ATMs) which did not have the capacity to physically process vote totals in the national vote. Although absentee voter rolls were established in 1964, in 1965 a new system was introduced which required that all registered voters obtain a state-issued paper ballot and electronically vote up to five years per county. As we have already seen, states are very hesitant to adopt electronic paper voting where there is no information on registration with a county clerk (or on paper ballots) until the vote is counted. Thus, in 1965 many states began to expand electronic voting. In 1964, only 16 states required electronic voting to determine whether they were accepting votes. It was followed in 1971 by states ending this practice. Since it was an expansion of this practice, in 2004 nearly half the states that adopted this technology still allowed electronic voting as a means of conducting absentee ballots.
In 1965, most