[Announcer] Harvard
Kennedy School presents
three things you didn't
know about U.S. elections.
Number one.
There is no right to vote
in the U.S. Constitution.
[Keyssar] It was not in
the original Constitution.
It was not in the Bill of Rights.
This surprises most people.
The states had already
developed franchise requirements
of their own and thinking in Philadelphia
was that if they chose
any particular standard
it might well antagonize
people from some states.
So, in effect they punted,
didn't say anything
and left it to the states.
There have been attempts
to add a right to vote
to the constitution and
they have all failed
and never come close.
[Announcer] Number two.
Historically, voter suppression
was not just a southern
problem.
[Keyssar] Most of us are quite
aware that in the late 19th and
early 20th century, there
were massive voter suppression
and disenfranchisement
efforts in the south
that were aimed at African Americans.
What is less well known, is
that there was an analogous
movement, less severe, but
none the less important,
in the northern states
to keep immigrant workers
from voting.
There were literacy requirements to vote
in many northern states,
including Massachusetts.
There was an English
language literacy requirement
that was passed in New York in 1921
and it remained on the
books until the late 1960s.
In Minnesota there were
laws that were passed
that prevented people who
work in the timber industry,
these people were seen as itinerant,
and they were not allowed to vote.
Or one of my favorite examples,
was the suppression of Jewish
voters in New York City
early in the 20th century
for several years.
When New York had an annual
registration requirement,
you had to register every
year in order to vote.
And in one year to limit
the voting strength
of New York's Jews and
particularly New York's Jewish
socialists, the only registration days
were on the Jewish high
holidays of Yom Kippur
and Rosh Hashanah.
[Announcer] Number three.
In the late 1960s, the
U.S. almost abandoned
the Electoral College, but then it didn't.
[Keyssar] It has in recent years
been a great deal of attention
focused on the Electoral College
and with good reason.
Because we have had two presidents
within the last 20 years
have been elected, who did
not win the popular vote.
What people don't know
is that we got very close
to eliminating the Electoral College
and replacing it with
a National popular vote
in 1969 and 70.
The impetus for it was coming
from several different directions.
The first was that from the late 1940s
through out the 50s, there were movements
to reform and nobody really thought
that it was a very good
institution or a very wise one.
A second, was the Supreme
Court decisions on districting
issues in the early 1960s
would proclaim loudly
and clearly and unmistakably
that the fundamental
democratic principle
was one person one vote.
And it was very hard to
embrace that principle
without thinking that
perhaps it should apply
to presidential elections as well.
In September of 1969, the
House of Representatives
voted by, I think it was, 82 percent
to amend the constitution
to get rid of the Electoral College
and have a National popular vote.
It was killed by a filibuster,
led by souther senators.
But there was a real democratic surge.
A surge of a democratic
ethos in the United States
in the 1960s and it almost
carried are way forward
into getting rid of the Electoral College.
[Announcer] Thank you, Professor Keyssar.
If you liked this video,
hit the like button.
And if you'd like to see more, subscribe.
