MARQUETTE — In 1944, 32nd U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt said: “Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves, and the only way they could do this is by not voting.”

Yet, according to a Sept. 10 National Public Radio article, only 4 in 10 Americans voted in the 2010 and 2014 midterm elections. Or, put another way, 60 percent of eligible voters either chose not to vote or were kept from voting by a variety of circumstances.

But a new era of activism surrounding voting seems to have had an effect across Michigan, with a record 2.2 million voters participating in the Aug. 7 primary, surpassing the state’s record 1.7 million turnout during the 2002 primary, the Michigan Secretary of State website states.

Voter turnout in Marquette County was almost double as compared to the most recent primary midterm election, with 14,156 ballots cast on Aug. 7 as opposed to 8,236 during the Aug. 5, 2014 midterm primary, according to the SOS.

Just under 51,000 people are registered to vote in the county, of which around 22,000 cast a ballot during Nov. 4, 2014 midterm, the site states.

Marquette County Clerk Linda Talsma said uptick in voter registration could also contribute to larger than normal turnout at the polls on Tuesday.

Talsma said there are several factors that could have caused the increase, which has yet to be officially calculated.

“I attribute that to probably a few different things,” Talsma said during a phone interview on Wednesday. “The League of Women Voters, the candidate debates, and the three proposals on the ballot this year. I do think that there is more interest due to the media having more information as well.”

In an email on Friday, Marquette County League of Women Voters Vice-Chair Darlene Allen said 21 volunteers with the organization who have been trained to educate and help people complete the paperwork necessary to become registered to vote have been working in the community since January.

“Reaching out to students is an important part of our efforts locally,” Allen said. “LWV volunteers helped to register eight students at the Marquette Alternative High School in May. They held a county-wide event on Sept. 25, National Voter Registration Day, by visiting five schools where they shared information with 292 students and helped 98 students complete their applications to register to vote.”

In addition, Allen said the LWV has held a significant number of community events in the past several months, consisting of 16 leading up to the Aug. 7 primary and another 25 leading up to Tuesday’s general election.

Our right to vote is a powerful, intrinsic part of our role as citizens of this country, said Northern Michigan University history professor Rebecca Mead.

“People don’t realize they have power,” Mead said. “If you didn’t have power, they wouldn’t try to prevent you from doing this (exercising your right to vote). And it is, by definition a collective activity. This is our chance to make our choices known, add them up and see what the results are.”

History:

There has been a continual transformation in voting rights since the U.S. Constitution was initially ratified in 1790, Mead said.

That original document granted the right to vote exclusively to white men 21 and older who owned property.

It was not until approximately three years after the end of the Civil War, in 1868, the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The measure granted full citizenship rights, including voting rights to all men born or naturalized in the United States. The action is quickly followed by the 15th Amendment, which states in part:

“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

In simple terms, both amendments were an effort to grant voting and other rights of citizenship to male slaves who had been freed as a result of the Civil War.

However, individual states still used poll taxes, literacy tests, fraud and intimidation as means of voter discrimination. In addition, Native Americans and women were still denied the right to vote.

Abby Roberts, daughter of Marquette founder John M. Longyear, was a leading member of what was known as the Women’s Welfare Club, an early suffrage group in Marquette. She was also the chair of Marquette Women’s Suffrage Delegation to the Michigan State Equal Suffrage Convention in Saginaw in 1915.

The efforts of Roberts paid off when in 1918, male voters in Michigan approved a state constitutional amendment granting suffrage, the right to vote in political elections, to women.

It was not until 1920 when women nationwide were granted the right to vote by the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, soon followed in 1924 by the Indian Citizenship Act, which granted Native Americans citizenship and the right to vote.

Mead said winning women’s suffrage in the U.S. was a “long, arduous process that required the dedication and hard work of several generations of women.”

Despite the progress represented in achieving women’s suffrage, the polls were a continued source of discrimination to African Americans, Mead said.

“I grew up in the South during the civil rights movements,” Mead said. “I was very small when all this was going on, but I looked up and saw what some of the African Americans around me were doing. And then I looked at what people were doing to try to stop them, but they pushed through anyway. This was a powerful message, that voting is important.”

In 1964, the federal Civil Rights Act was passed to ensure all men 21 and older, regardless of race, religion or education have the right to vote. The measure was quickly followed by the federal Voting Rights Act which federally enforced registration and voting rights and suspended literacy tests.

The 26th Amendment to the Constitution lowered the voting age to 18 in 1971, and in 1975, the Voting Rights Act was renewed, issuing a permanent ban on literacy tests nationwide and adding a requirement for translated voting materials in areas with large numbers of citizens with limited English skills.

Why it matters:

On Tuesday, Michigan voters will choose a new governor, as well as local, state and federal representatives. They will also have the opportunity to accept or reject proposals that will legalize recreational marijuana, authorize a change in the manner which voting districts are drawn, and implement automatic or election day voter registration.

“It’s people power,” Mead said. “Voter suppression still exists, and as I told my students the other day — college students are the main target of that, and some are realizing that people are actively trying to keep them from doing it.”

Allen said it’s important to think of voting as more than just a civic duty.

“Voting is an opportunity to make our voices heard and to participate in and protect the democratic process,” she said. “The people you vote for to run your state and local governments have a big impact on your day-to-day life. Voting empowers us to bring about a brighter future for ourselves, our friends and neighbors and our communities. Voting is also one of the few times in our society we are all equal, regardless of income, gender, race or occupation. Every single vote matters. What some younger voters may not realize is that if you don’t vote, the politicians don’t have much of a reason or incentive to listen to you. If you vote, your voice amplifies.”

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voters can check their registration status, see their sample ballot, or find information about absentee voting by visiting the Michigan Voter Information Center at www.Michigan.gov/vote.

Lisa Bowers can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 242. Her email address is lbowers@miningjournal .net.