ABSTRACT
In many countries the proportion of eligible citizens who vote is higher than in the United States; comments on this observation generally imply that United States citizens are less interested in politics and perhaps less grateful for their democratic privileges than citizens of other nations. Registration in the United States is left completely up to the citizen who often encounters roadblocks like those used openly in the southern states to discourage Black voting and somewhat less obviously to discourage poor White voting. Perhaps most important was the influence of a broad, if very ambiguously defined, consensus that voting was rather more a privilege the individual had to prove himself worthy to exercise than a right which was an attribute to adult citizenship. Additional readings on voting and equality can be found in D. Rae, The Political Consequences of Electoral Law. Before 1966, Texas was one of the few states which still imposed a poll tax as a prerequisite for voting.
