title: Pharaohs in the Bible

text: tells of Abram moving to Egypt to escape a period of famine in Canaan. Abram worries that the unnamed pharaoh will kill him and take away his wife Sarai, so Abram tells her to say she is his sister. They are eventually summoned to meet the pharaoh, but God sends plagues against the pharaoh because of his intention to marry Sarai. After discovering that Sarai is Abram's wife, he releases her and orders Abram to take his belongings and return to Canaan.


title: Pharaohs in the Bible

text: The final chapters of the Book of Genesis () tell how Joseph, son of Jacob, is sold by his brothers into Egyptian slavery, promoted by the unnamed pharaoh to vizier of Egypt, and later given permission to bring his father, his brothers, and their families into Egypt to live in the Land of Goshen (eastern Nile Delta around modern Faqus). Ahmed Osman argued that this pharaoh was Thutmose IV and identified Joseph as the Egyptian figure Yuya. Other scholars generally reject Osman's claims.


title: Pharaohs in the Bible

text: In the Book of Exodus, the Israelites—the descendants of Jacob's sons—are living in the Land of Goshen under a new pharaoh who oppresses the Hebrews. He forces them to work long hours and issues a decree to kill their newborn males in order to reduce their numbers due to concerns about their growing population. Moses, a Levite, is saved by his mother who instructs his sister Miriam to watch over him after he is placed in a reed basket in the Nile River. He is discovered and adopted by the pharaoh's daughter. Miriam asks the princess if she would like an Israelite woman to help nurse the child and returns with Moses' own mother, who is then able to raise her child under royal protection. During his infant years, Moses is instructed about the customs and history of the Israelites, and is taught about Yahweh. Later, Moses is returned to the pharaoh's daughter and raised as part of the royal household.


title: Pharaohs in the Bible

text: Though scholars generally do not recognize the biblical portrayal of the Exodus as an actual historical event, various historical pharaohs have been proposed as the corresponding ruler:


title: Pharaohs in the Bible

text: In , it is narrated that to seal an alliance, the pharaoh of Egypt gave a daughter in marriage to Solomon. The same ruler later captured the city of Gezer and gave it to Solomon as well (). No name is given for the pharaoh, and some hypotheses have been proposed:


title: Pharaohs in the Bible

text: and sqq. tell of an invasion of Israel by Shishak, and a subsequent raid of Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon. He is generally identified with Shoshenq I (943–922 BC).


title: Pharaohs in the Bible

text: and mention a Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia (Kush), who the Bible says waged war against Sennacherib during the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah. Some scholars have identified him as the pharaoh Taharqa. The events in the biblical account are believed to have taken place in 701 BC, whereas Taharqa came to the throne some ten years later. A number of explanations have been proposed: one being that the title of king in the Biblical text refers to his future royal title, when at the time of this account he was likely only a military commander.


title: Pharaohs in the Bible

text: Necho II is most likely the pharaoh mentioned in several books of the Bible. mentions his successor Apries or Hophra (589–570 BC).


title: Cathodic protection

text: Cathodic protection (CP; ) is a technique used to control the corrosion of a metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell. A simple method of protection connects the metal to be protected to a more easily corroded "sacrificial metal" to act as the anode. The sacrificial metal then corrodes instead of the protected metal. For structures such as long pipelines, where passive galvanic cathodic protection is not adequate, an external DC electrical power source is used to provide sufficient current.


title: Cathodic protection

text: Cathodic protection systems protect a wide range of metallic structures in various environments. Common applications are: steel water or fuel pipelines and steel storage tanks such as home water heaters; steel pier piles; ship and boat hulls; offshore oil platforms and onshore oil well casings; offshore wind farm foundations and metal reinforcement bars in concrete buildings and structures. Another common application is in galvanized steel, in which a sacrificial coating of zinc on steel parts protects them from rust.


title: Cathodic protection

text: Cathodic protection was first described by Sir Humphry Davy in a series of papers presented to the Royal Society in London in 1824. The first application was to in 1824. Sacrificial anodes made from iron attached to the copper sheath of the hull below the waterline dramatically reduced the corrosion rate of the copper. However, a side effect of cathodic protection was the increase in marine growth. Usually, copper when corroding releases copper ions which have an anti-fouling effect. Since excess marine growth affected the performance of the ship, the Royal Navy decided that it was better to allow the copper to corrode and have the benefit of reduced marine growth, so cathodic protection was not used further.


title: Cathodic protection

text: Davy was assisted in his experiments by his pupil Michael Faraday, who continued his research after Davy's death. In 1834, Faraday discovered the quantitative connection between corrosion weight loss and electric current and thus laid the foundation for the future application of cathodic protection.


title: Cathodic protection

text: Thomas Edison experimented with impressed current cathodic protection on ships in 1890, but was unsuccessful due to the lack of a suitable current source and anode materials. It would be 100 years after Davy's experiment before cathodic protection was used widely on oil pipelines in the United States cathodic protection was applied to steel gas pipelines beginning in 1928 and more widely in the 1930s.


title: Cathodic protection

text: In the application of "passive" cathodic protection, a "galvanic anode", a piece of a more electrochemically "active" metal (more negative electrode potential), is attached to the vulnerable metal surface where it is exposed to an electrolyte. Galvanic anodes are selected because they have a more "active" voltage than the metal of the target structure (typically steel).


title: Cathodic protection

text: Concrete has a pH around 13. In this environment the steel reinforcement has a passive protective layer and remains largely stable. Galvanic systems are "constant potential" systems that aim to restore the concrete's natural protective environment by providing a high initial current to restore passivity. It then reverts to a lower sacrificial current while harmful negative Chloride ions migrate away from the steel and towards the positive anode. The anodes remain reactive through their lifetime (10-20 years typically) increasing current when the resistivity decreases due to corrosion hazards such as rainfall, temperature increases or flooding. The reactive nature of these anodes makes them an efficient choice.


title: Cathodic protection

text: Unlike impressed current cathodic protection (ICCP) systems steel constant polarization is not the goal, rather the restoration of the environment. Polarization of the target structure is caused by the electron flow from the anode to the cathode, so the two metals must have a good electrically conductive contact. The driving force for the cathodic protection current is the difference in electrode potential between the anode and the cathode. During the initial phase of high current, the potential of the steel surface is polarized (pushed) more negative protecting the steel which hydroxide ion generation at the steel surface and ionic migration restore the concrete environment.


title: Cathodic protection

text: Over time the galvanic anode continues to corrode, consuming the anode material until eventually it must be replaced.<br>


title: Cathodic protection

text: Galvanic or sacrificial anodes are made in various shapes and sizes using alloys of zinc, magnesium and aluminium. ASTM International publishes standards on the composition and manufacturing of galvanic anodes.


title: Cathodic protection

text: In order for galvanic cathodic protection to work, the anode must possess a lower (that is, more negative) electrode potential than that of the cathode (the target structure to be protected). The table below shows a simplified galvanic series which is used to select the anode metal. The anode must be chosen from a material that is lower on the list than the material to be protected.


title: Cathodic protection

text: In some cases, "impressed current cathodic protection" (ICCP) systems are used. These consist of anodes connected to a DC power source, often a transformer-rectifier connected to AC power. In the absence of an AC supply, alternative power sources may be used, such as solar panels, wind power or gas powered thermoelectric generators.


title: Cathodic protection

text: Anodes for ICCP systems are available in a variety of shapes and sizes. Common anodes are tubular and solid rod shapes or continuous ribbons of various materials. These include high silicon cast iron, graphite, mixed metal oxide (MMO), platinum and niobium coated wire and other materials.


title: Cathodic protection

text: For pipelines, anodes are arranged in groundbeds either distributed or in a deep vertical hole depending on several design and field condition factors including current distribution requirements.


title: Cathodic protection

text: Cathodic protection transformer-rectifier units are often custom manufactured and equipped with a variety of features, including remote monitoring and control, integral current interrupters and various type of electrical enclosures. The output DC negative terminal is connected to the structure to be protected by the cathodic protection system. The rectifier output DC positive cable is connected to the anodes. The AC power cable is connected to the rectifier input terminals.


title: Cathodic protection

text: The output of the ICCP system should be optimised to provide enough current to provide protection to the target structure. Some cathodic protection transformer-rectifier units are designed with taps on the transformer windings and jumper terminals to select the voltage output of the ICCP system. Cathodic protection transformer-rectifier units for water tanks and used in other applications are made with solid state circuits to automatically adjust the operating voltage to maintain the optimum current output or structure-to-electrolyte potential. Analog or digital meters are often installed to show the operating voltage (DC and sometime AC) and current output. For shore structures and other large complex target structures, ICCP systems are often designed with multiple independent zones of anodes with separate cathodic protection transformer-rectifier circuits.


title: Cathodic protection

text: Hybrid systems have been used for over a decade and incorporate the coordination, monitoring and high restorative current flow of ICCP systems with the reactive, lower cost and easier to maintain galvanic anodes.


title: Cathodic protection

text: The system is made up of wired galvanic anodes in arrays typically 400mm apart which are then initially powered for a short period to restore the concrete and power ionic migration. The power supply is then taken away and the anodes simply attached to the steel as a galvanic system. More powered phases can be administered if needed. Like Galvanic systems corrosion rate monitoring from polarisation tests and half-cell potential mapping can be used to measure corrosion. Polarization is not the goal for the life of the system.


title: Cathodic protection

text: This technology is also used to protect water heaters. Indeed, the electrons sent by the imposed current anode (composed of titanium and covered with MMO) prevents the inside of the tank from rusting.


title: Cathodic protection

text: In order to be recognized as effective, these anodes must comply with certain standards: A cathodic protection system is considered efficient when its potential reaches or exceeds the limits established by the cathodic protection criteria. The cathode protection criteria used come from the standard NACE SP0388-2007 (formerly RP0388-2001) of the NACE National Association of Corrosion Engineers.


title: Cathodic protection

text: Hazardous product pipelines are routinely protected by a coating supplemented with cathodic protection. An impressed current cathodic protection system (ICCP) for a pipeline consists of a DC power source, often an AC powered transformer rectifier and an anode, or array of anodes buried in the ground (the anode groundbed).


title: Cathodic protection

text: The DC power source would typically have a DC output of up to 50 amperes and 50 volts, but this depends on several factors, such as the size of the pipeline and coating quality. The positive DC output terminal would be connected via cables to the anode array, while another cable would connect the negative terminal of the rectifier to the pipeline, preferably through junction boxes to allow measurements to be taken.


title: Cathodic protection

text: Anodes can be installed in a groundbed consisting of a vertical hole backfilled with conductive coke (a material that improves the performance and life of the anodes) or laid in a prepared trench, surrounded by conductive coke and backfilled. The choice of groundbed type and size depends on the application, location and soil resistivity.


title: Cathodic protection

text: The DC cathodic protection current is then adjusted to the optimum level after conducting various tests including measurements of pipe-to-soil potentials or electrode potential.


title: Cathodic protection

text: It is sometimes more economically viable to protect a pipeline using galvanic (sacrificial) anodes. This is often the case on smaller diameter pipelines of limited length. Galvanic anodes rely on the galvanic series potentials of the metals to drive cathodic protection current from the anode to the structure being protected.


title: Cathodic protection

text: Water pipelines of various pipe materials are also provided with cathodic protection where owners determine the cost is reasonable for the expected pipeline service life extension attributed to the application of cathodic protection.


title: Cathodic protection

text: Cathodic protection on ships is often implemented by galvanic anodes attached to the hull and ICCP for larger vessels. Since ships are regularly removed from the water for inspections and maintenance, it is a simple task to replace the galvanic anodes.


title: Cathodic protection

text: Galvanic anodes are generally shaped to reduced drag in the water and fitted flush to the hull to also try to minimize drag.


title: Cathodic protection

text: Smaller vessels, with non-metallic hulls, such as yachts, are equipped with galvanic anodes to protect areas such as outboard motors. As with all galvanic cathodic protection, this application relies on a solid electrical connection between the anode and the item to be protected.


title: Cathodic protection

text: For ICCP on ships, the anodes are usually constructed of a relatively inert material such as platinised titanium. A DC power supply is provided within the ship and the anodes mounted on the outside of the hull. The anode cables are introduced into the ship via a compression seal fitting and routed to the DC power source. The negative cable from the power supply is simply attached to the hull to complete the circuit. Ship ICCP anodes are flush-mounted, minimizing the effects of drag on the ship, and located a minimum 5 ft below the light load line in an area to avoid mechanical damage. The current density required for protection is a function of velocity and considered when selecting the current capacity and location of anode placement on the hull.


title: Cathodic protection

text: Some ships may require specialist treatment, for example aluminium hulls with steel fixtures will create an electrochemical cell where the aluminium hull can act as a galvanic anode and corrosion is enhanced. In cases like this, aluminium or zinc galvanic anodes can be used to offset the potential difference between the aluminium hull and the steel fixture. If the steel fixtures are large, several galvanic anodes may be required, or even a small ICCP system.


title: Cathodic protection

text: Marine cathodic protection covers many areas, jetties, harbors, offshore structures. The variety of different types of structure leads to a variety of systems to provide protection. Galvanic anodes are favored, but ICCP can also often be used. Because of the wide variety of structure geometry, composition, and architecture, specialized firms are often required to engineer structure-specific cathodic protection systems. Sometimes marine structures require retroactive modification to be effectively protected


title: Cathodic protection

text: The application to concrete reinforcement is slightly different in that the anodes and reference electrodes are usually embedded in the concrete at the time of construction when the concrete is being poured. The usual technique for concrete buildings, bridges and similar structures is to use ICCP, but there are systems available that use the principle of galvanic cathodic protection as well, although in the UK at least, the use of galvanic anodes for atmospherically exposed reinforced concrete structures is considered experimental.


title: Cathodic protection

text: For ICCP, the principle is the same as any other ICCP system. However, in a typical atmospherically exposed concrete structure such as a bridge, there will be many more anodes distributed through the structure as opposed to an array of anodes as used on a pipeline. This makes for a more complicated system and usually an automatically controlled DC power source is used, possibly with an option for remote monitoring and operation. For buried or submerged structures, the treatment is similar to that of any other buried or submerged structure.


title: Cathodic protection

text: Galvanic systems offer the advantage of being easier to retrofit and do not need any control systems as ICCP does.


title: Cathodic protection

text: For pipelines constructed from pre-stressed concrete cylinder pipe (PCCP), the techniques used for cathodic protection are generally as for steel pipelines except that the applied potential must be limited to prevent damage to the prestressing wire.


title: Cathodic protection

text: The steel wire in a PCCP pipeline is stressed to the point that any corrosion of the wire can result in failure. An additional problem is that any excessive hydrogen ions as a result of an excessively negative potential can cause hydrogen embrittlement of the wire, also resulting in failure. The failure of too many wires will result in catastrophic failure of the PCCP. To implement ICCP therefore requires very careful control to ensure satisfactory protection. A simpler option is to use galvanic anodes, which are self-limiting and need no control.


title: Cathodic protection

text: Vessels, pipelines and tanks (including ballast tanks) which are used to store or transport liquids can also be protected from corrosion on their internal surfaces by the use of cathodic protection. ICCP and galvanic systems can be used. A common application of internal cathodic protection is water storage tanks and power plant shell and tube heat exchangers.


title: Cathodic protection

text: Galvanizing generally refers to hot-dip galvanizing which is a way of coating steel with a layer of metallic zinc or tin. Lead or antimony are often added to the molten zinc bath, and also other metals have been studied. Galvanized coatings are quite durable in most environments because they combine the barrier properties of a coating with some of the benefits of cathodic protection. If the zinc coating is scratched or otherwise locally damaged and steel is exposed, the surrounding areas of zinc coating form a galvanic cell with the exposed steel and protect it from corrosion. This is a form of localized cathodic protection - the zinc acts as a sacrificial anode.


title: Cathodic protection

text: Galvanizing, while using the electrochemical principle of cathodic protection, is not actually cathodic but sacrificial protection. In the case of galvanizing, only areas very close to the zinc are protected. Hence, a larger area of bare steel would only be protected around the edges.


title: Cathodic protection

text: Several companies market electronic devices claiming to mitigate corrosion for automobiles and trucks. Corrosion control professionals find they do not work. There is no peer reviewed scientific testing and validation supporting the use of the devices. In 1996 the FTC ordered David McCready, a person that sold devices claiming to protect cars from corrosion, to pay restitution and banned the names "Rust Buster" and "Rust Evader."


title: Cathodic protection

text: Electrode potential is measured with reference electrodes. Copper-copper sulphate electrodes are used for structures in contact with soil or fresh water. Silver/silver chloride/seawater electrodes or pure zinc electrodes are used for seawater applications. The methods are described in EN 13509:2003 and NACE TM0497 along with the sources of error in the voltage that appears on the display of the meter. Interpretation of electrode potential measurements to determine the potential at the interface between the anode of the corrosion cell and the electrolyte requires training and cannot be expected to match the accuracy of measurements done in laboratory work.


title: Cathodic protection

text: A side effect of improperly applied cathodic protection is the production of atomic hydrogen, leading to its absorption in the protected metal and subsequent hydrogen embrittlement of welds and materials with high hardness. Under normal conditions, the atomic hydrogen will combine at the metal surface to create hydrogen gas, which cannot penetrate the metal. Hydrogen atoms, however, are small enough to pass through the crystalline steel structure, and can lead in some cases to hydrogen embrittlement.


title: Cathodic protection

text: This is a process of disbondment of protective coatings from the protected structure (cathode) due to the formation of hydrogen ions over the surface of the protected material (cathode). Disbonding can be exacerbated by an increase in alkali ions and an increase in cathodic polarization. The degree of disbonding is also reliant on the type of coating, with some coatings affected more than others. Cathodic protection systems should be operated so that the structure does not become excessively polarized, since this also promotes disbonding due to excessively negative potentials. Cathodic disbonding occurs rapidly in pipelines that contain hot fluids because the process is accelerated by heat flow.


title: Cathodic protection

text: Effectiveness of cathodic protection (CP) systems on steel pipelines can be impaired by the use of solid film backed dielectric coatings such as polyethylene tapes, shrinkable pipeline sleeves, and factory applied single or multiple solid film coatings. This phenomenon occurs because of the high electrical resistivity of these film backings. Protective electric current from the cathodic protection system is blocked or shielded from reaching the underlying metal by the highly resistive film backing. Cathodic shielding was first defined in the 1980s as being a problem, and technical papers on the subject have been regularly published since then.


title: Cathodic protection

text: A 1999 report concerning a spill from a Saskatchewan crude oil line contains an excellent definition of the cathodic shielding problem:


title: Cathodic protection

text: Cathodic shielding is referenced in a number of the standards listed below. Newly issued USDOT regulation Title 49 CFR 192.112, in the section for "Additional design requirements for steel pipe using alternative maximum allowable operating pressure" requires that "The pipe must be protected against external corrosion by a non-shielding coating" (see coatings section on standard). Also, the NACE SP0169:2007 standard defines shielding in section 2, cautions against the use of materials that create electrical shielding in section 4.2.3, cautions against use of external coatings that create electrical shielding in section 5.1.2.3, and instructs readers to take 'appropriate action' when the effects of electrical shielding of cathodic protection current are detected on an operating pipeline in section 10.9.


Confidential Assignment 2: International () is a South Korean action comedy film directed by Lee Suk-hoon. It serves as the sequel to the 2017 film "Confidential Assignment". The film stars Hyun Bin, Yoo Hae-jin, Im Yoon-ah, Daniel Henney, and Jin Seon-kyu. The film was released on September 7, 2022.


title: Confidential Assignment 2: International

text: In New York City, Jang Myong-jun, who is the leader of a North Korean criminal organization, is about to be transferred to Pyongyang when the FBI officials are attacked by North Korean gangsters and Myong-jun escapes. Myong-jun sneaks into Seoul using a fake passport and also took 1 billion with the help of his partner Kim Chul-soo, a former agent and scientist. Learning this, the North Korean government sends Im Cheol-ryong to Seoul again to catch him and retrieve the money.


text: Cheol-ryeong reunites with Kang Jin-tae (who is assigned for the mission like the previous film) and they resume the investigation to trail Myong-jun, but the duo is interrupted by an FBI agent named Jack, who wishes to bring the North Korean criminals back to U.S. on charges of killing FBI officials. They agree to work together, and the operation is expanded to a trilateral collaboration of the Koreans and Americans. At the hotel, Cheol-ryeong confesses that Myong-jun is his senior and a former North Korean agent. Jack also says that he received mail from Adolf Bohrmann to catch Myong-jun 2 months ago, and he suspected that Bohrmann's boss Michael Joe, a crime boss, is helping Myong-jun in money laundering, and Joe had betrayed Myong-jun to steal the money.


text: The next morning, the trio decide to track Sergey, the person who provides a fake passport and illegal cell phones to Myong-jun, and they follow his girlfriend Natasha, a Russian model. At night, Natasha goes out for shopping, where Jin-tae sneaks into her house to implant a bug, but is attacked by Sergey. However, Jin-tae manages to defeat Sergey and brings him to the interrogation room, where they track the cell phone's location to Joe's club. The trio, along with Jin-tae's sister-in-law Park Min-young, inflitrate the club. Meanwhile, Myong-jun meets Joe at the penthouse and demands him to hand over the money, but Joe refuses, when Myong-jun kills Joe and Chul-soo, as the latter is in cahoots with the FBI. Cheol-ryeong heads to the penthouse where he manages to arrest Myong-jun. Later at the North Korean delegation's residence, Cheol-ryeong finds that Bohrmann is actually a German scientist, who is responsible for killing Jews in a gas leak accident.


text: Cheol-ryeong informs this to Jack, who later learns that his boss is also in cahoots with Myong-jun. An assassin tries to kill Jack, but he manages to subdue him and learns that Jin-tae's family are being held by Myong-jun and Jin-tae is forced to take Myong-jun's henchman into the residence to spread a virus on the residence's radio tower. Myong-jun frees himself and kills his former superior Kim Jeong-teak, who is actually Bohrmann, and is revealed to have hired Myeong-jun to steal the money. Jeong-teak is also the person responsible for the death of Myong-jun's family. Jack reaches Jin-tae's house and kills the attackers, thus saving the family. Cheol-ryeong and Jin-tae arrive and the two manage to defuse the bomb and kill Myong-jun.


text: After this, the money is delivered to UNICEF and Cheol-ryeong returns to North Korea. He also accepts the love proposal by Min-young.


text: On August 24, 2020, Hyun Bin and Yoo Hae-jin was reported to be in discussion to reprise their role as Im Cheol-ryung and Kang Jin-tae, respectively. On August 26, 2020, Daniel Henney was reported to be in discussion to join the cast. On August 28, 2020, Im Yoon-ah was reported to be in discussion to reprise her role as Park Min-young.


text: On January 22, 2021, Hyun Bin, Yoo Hae-jin, and Im Yoon-ah was confirmed to reprise their role. In addition, Daniel Henney and Jin Seon-kyu joined the cast.


text: On February 13, 2021, the script reading took place. On February 16, 2021, Park Min-ha was confirmed to reprise her role as Kang Yeon-ah, making it her first acting project in 5 years after its prequel. On February 19, 2021, Park Hyung-soo joined the cast. On February 26, 2021, Lee Min-ji joined the cast.


text: The film was released on 2167 screens on September 7, 2022, in South Korea. The film surpassed 1 million admissions in 3 days of release and 2 million admissions in 5 days of release, achieving the milestone at twice the speed of its predecessor. On September 12, six days after its release, it became the fourth South Korean film in 2022 to cross 3 million admissions. On September 22, 16 days after its release, it became the third South Korean film in 2022 to cross 5 million admissions. On October 2, 26 days after its release, it surpassed 6 million admissions.


text: , it is the third highest-grossing Korean film of 2022, with a gross of US$54,258,877, and 6,982,840 admissions.


title: Wood veneer

text: In woodworking, veneer refers to thin slices of wood and sometimes bark, usually thinner than 3 mm (1/8 inch), that typically are glued onto core panels (typically, wood, particle board or medium-density fiberboard) to produce flat panels such as doors, tops and panels for cabinets, parquet floors and parts of furniture. They are also used in marquetry. Plywood consists of three or more layers of veneer. Normally, each is glued with its grain at right angles to adjacent layers for strength. Veneer beading is a thin layer of decorative edging placed around objects, such as jewelry boxes. Veneer is also used to replace decorative papers in Wood Veneer HPL.


title: Wood veneer

text: Veneer is obtained either by "peeling" the trunk of a tree or by slicing large rectangular blocks of wood known as flitches. The appearance of the grain and figure in wood comes from slicing through the growth rings of a tree and depends upon the angle at which the wood is sliced. There are three main types of veneer-making equipment used commercially:


title: Wood veneer

text: Each slicing processes gives a very distinctive type of grain, depending upon the tree species. In any of the veneer-slicing methods, when the veneer is sliced, a distortion of the grain occurs. As it hits the wood, the knife blade creates a "loose" side where the cells have been opened up by the blade, and a "tight" side.


title: Wood veneer

text: Historically veneers were also sawn, but this is more wasteful of wood. Veneering is an ancient art, dating back to at least the ancient Egyptians who used expensive and rare wood veneers over cheaper timbers to produce their furniture and sarcophagi. During the Roman Empire, Romans also used veneered work in mass quantities.


title: Wood veneer

text: The finest and rarest logs are sent to companies that produce veneer. The advantage to this practice is twofold. First, it provides the most financial gain to the owner of the log. Secondly, and of more importance to the woodworker, it greatly expands the amount of usable wood. While a log used for solid lumber is cut into thick pieces, usually no thinner than 1/8 of an inch (3 mm), veneers are cut as thin as 1/40 of an inch (0.6 mm). Depending on the cutting process used by the veneer manufacturer, very little wood is wasted by the saw blade thickness, known as the saw kerf. Accordingly, the yield of a rare grain pattern or wood type is greatly increased, in turn placing less stress on the resource. Some manufacturers even use a very wide knife to "slice off" the thin veneer pieces. In this way, none of the wood is wasted. The slices of veneer are always kept in the order in which they are cut from the log and are often sold this way.


title: Wood veneer

text: Compared to wood, one of the primary advantages of using veneer is stability. While solid wood can be prone to warping and splitting, because veneer is made of thin layers of wood glued together, the chances of splitting or cracking are reduced.


title: Wood veneer

text: Some projects built using wood veneer would not be possible to construct using solid lumber, owing to expansion and contraction caused by fluctuation of temperature and humidity. Another advantage of veneer is sustainability—furniture made with wood veneer uses less wood than the same piece of furniture made with solid wood. Further, veneer may also be more readily available than solid wood as exotic hardwood lumber can be scarce and very expensive.


title: Wood veneer

text: Wood veneers are typically sold by the square foot. With the ability to join veneers, even small pieces are usable, resulting in very little waste.


title: Wood veneer

text: Many sources sell small packets of veneers that are sequence matched and are ideal for small projects. These make experimenting and practicing much more economical. It is also possible to buy plywood and other substrates with veneered faces for larger projects consisting of casework.


title: Rayleigh distribution

text: In probability theory and statistics, the Rayleigh distribution is a continuous probability distribution for nonnegative-valued random variables. Up to rescaling, it coincides with the chi distribution with two degrees of freedom.


title: Rayleigh distribution

text: A Rayleigh distribution is often observed when the overall magnitude of a vector is related to its directional components. One example where the Rayleigh distribution naturally arises is when wind velocity is analyzed in two dimensions.


title: Rayleigh distribution

text: Assuming that each component is uncorrelated, normally distributed with equal variance, and zero mean, then the overall wind speed (vector magnitude) will be characterized by a Rayleigh distribution.


title: Rayleigh distribution

text: A second example of the distribution arises in the case of random complex numbers whose real and imaginary components are independently and identically distributed Gaussian with equal variance and zero mean. In that case, the absolute value of the complex number is Rayleigh-distributed.


title: Rayleigh distribution

text: Consider the two-dimensional vector formula_13 which has components that are bivariate normally distributed, centered at zero, and independent. Then formula_14 and formula_15 have density functions


title: Rayleigh distribution

text: Let formula_17 be the length of formula_18. That is, formula_19 Then formula_17 has cumulative distribution function


title: Rayleigh distribution

text: Finally, the probability density function for formula_17 is the derivative of its cumulative distribution function, which by the fundamental theorem of calculus is


title: Rayleigh distribution

text: which is the Rayleigh distribution. It is straightforward to generalize to vectors of dimension other than 2.


title: Rayleigh distribution

text: There are also generalizations when the components have unequal variance or correlations (Hoyt distribution), or when the vector "Y" follows a bivariate Student "t"-distribution (see also: Hotelling's T-squared distribution).


title: Rayleigh distribution

text: Suppose formula_18 is a random vector with components formula_28 that follows a multivariate t-distribution. If the components both have mean zero, equal variance, and are independent, the bivariate Student's-t distribution takes the form:


title: Rayleigh distribution

text: Let formula_30 be the magnitude of formula_18. Then the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the magnitude is:


title: Rayleigh distribution

text: Given a sample of "N" independent and identically distributed Rayleigh random variables formula_54 with parameter formula_2,


title: Rayleigh distribution

text: Given a random variate "U" drawn from the uniform distribution in the interval <nowiki>(0, 1)</nowiki>, then the variate


title: Rayleigh distribution

text: has a Rayleigh distribution with parameter formula_2. This is obtained by applying the inverse transform sampling-method.


title: Rayleigh distribution

text: An application of the estimation of σ can be found in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). As MRI images are recorded as complex images but most often viewed as magnitude images, the background data is Rayleigh distributed. Hence, the above formula can be used to estimate the noise variance in an MRI image from background data.


title: Rayleigh distribution

text: The Rayleigh distribution was also employed in the field of nutrition for linking dietary nutrient levels and human and animal responses. In this way, the parameter σ may be used to calculate nutrient response relationship.


title: Rayleigh distribution

text: In the field of ballistics, the Rayleigh distribution is used for calculating the circular error probable—a measure of a weapon's precision.


title: Rayleigh distribution

text: In physical oceanography, the distribution of significant wave height approximately follows a Rayleigh distribution.


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: The Signal is a 2014 American science fiction thriller film directed by William Eubank, and written by William and Carlyle Eubank and David Frigerio. The film stars Brenton Thwaites and Laurence Fishburne. It premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, and was theatrically released in the United States on June 13, 2014.


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: Three MIT students – Jonah, Nic, and Haley – are on a road trip to move Haley to California, a decision that stresses Nic's relationship with Haley. Nic walks with forearm crutches, and the possibility of muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, or some other degenerative disease is implied but never specified. Haley feels Nic is distancing himself from her and Nic explains he does not want his disability to hold her back. During their stay in a hotel, Nic and Jonah discover that a hacker named NOMAD, who nearly got them expelled for breaking into MIT servers, has found their location and is taunting them with strange and ominous e-mails. They track NOMAD to an abandoned house in the middle of Nevada and decide to go after him. After finding nothing in the house, Nic and Jonah hear Haley scream and run outside, only to see her pulled into the sky before disappearing into a white light themselves.


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: Nic, now with the number 2.3.5.41 tattooed on his arm, wakes up in a strange and sterile underground research facility where he is questioned by Dr. Wallace Damon, the head of the "transition group" in charge of helping Nic to cope with his strange situation. Damon tells Nic what they encountered near the house was an EBE: an extraterrestrial biological entity. Nic remains in a state of disbelief. Dr. Damon then shows him footage from Nic's own video camera and pauses where an alien face can be seen peering from behind a tree. Nic is taken to his room where he hears Jonah talking to him through a small vent in the wall, saying "(his) body feels weird." Nic also notices that his legs, previously weak but functional, are now completely numb. When Dr. Damon questions him again, Nic tries to get answers about Haley's condition (who is in a coma at the time), but is unsuccessful. Following an unexplained experiment on a cow in another part of the facility, a security alarm goes off and Nic, along with other personnel, finds large dents with scorch marks running across the walls and no sign of Jonah. Nic asks Damon where Jonah went but Damon tells him that Jonah was never recovered from the house. Increasingly agitated, Nic tries to break Haley out but is intercepted. After being restrained, he is shocked to discover that his legs have been amputated and replaced by prostheses made from alien technology. Nic then uses these super-powered limbs to break Haley and himself out of the facility, only to discover they are in the middle of a vast barren desert.


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: After hitching a ride with an old lady who seems sweet yet oddly troubled, Nic and Haley hijack an 18-wheeler truck to try to find a way around the seemingly endless canyon that extends around the facility and surrounding area. At a visitors center, they come across Jonah disguised as one of the facility workers dressed in a white hazmat suit. Jonah reveals that he too had limbs taken from him, as his forearms and hands have been replaced with the same alien technology as Nic's legs. Jonah speculates that they are in Area 51 (because they both have the same tattooed number, which adds up to 51), and that this is all a test. After Nic discovers indications of alien technology also implanted in Haley's spine, the trio drive up to a military checkpoint. Jonah then tries to hack into their computer system, only to be stopped by a hail of gunfire from the facility personnel, which causes damage to his eyeglasses and ruins his ability to see the computer correctly. Nic and Jonah hug as the fatally wounded Jonah prepares for his final stand that will allow Nic and Haley to escape. Jonah uses his remaining strength and prosthetic alien arms to subdue the group of soldiers. However, Nic and Haley's escape is short-lived; as they approach the only bridge that would take them over the canyon to the outside world, they run into Damon and his military men, who blow out the truck's tires. Haley is evacuated by helicopter beyond the canyon and, knowing that Nic has mastered the use of his legs, Damon tells Nic "you can't reach her." After hearing a loud horn coming from the sky, Nic realizes that Damon is NOMAD (Damon spelled backwards). Damon then explains that it was Nic who came looking for "him", that this was his fault, and adding that Nic is "the perfect integration of human will and alien technology. Our finest achievement." Agitated and emotionally compromised, Nic's bionic legs enable him to sprint at supersonic speed across the bridge where he hits an invisible barrier and breaks through.


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: Nic finds himself inside what appears to be a different, larger exterior facility. Housed within it, through the broken barrier, can be seen 'Area 51", the Earth-like world with the canyon city. Looking in through the hole towards the bridge, he sees Damon walk up and remove his helmet to reveal that he is actually a robotic alien, with merely a human-like face. Nic turns back around, and through the glass sees stars and outer space. He realizes he is not in a government facility, but is actually on an immense alien spacecraft numbered 2.3.5.41 (matching the numerical tattoo on his arm) that is about to dock at their home world (signaled by the horn). A final zoom-out view reveals the whole ship, with a parabolic sun shield on the top and a large alien city, complete with skyscrapers, pointing away from the alien sun. In the distance, another similar city ship can be seen.


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: The filmmakers have stated that they wrote the film primarily as an exploration of the conflict between logic and emotion. Director William Eubank stated in an interview, ""The Signal", for me, is about choices and sort of what drives somebody – the decisions we make, whether we make them based on thinking logically or thinking emotionally. Nic is sort of a character who's being – he wants to be logical, because he believes from his computer background that is a stronger way to live your life, and that's a more reasonable way to live your life. Black and white decisions, yes or nos. Then he's sort of challenged to make an emotional choice. At the very start, he was sort of trying to push those emotions away... At the end of the movie, he chooses to embrace that emotional side and make a choice based on a feeling."


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: Co-writer Carlyle Eubank explained the film similarly, saying "The real crux of the film is how the characters... find who they are as people through adversity."


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: Actor Brenton Thwaites stated the film's metaphoric message of following one's heart over reason was what drew him to the project, saying "I love the little messages and metaphors throughout the film that tell you to really chase what you believe in and follow your heart... the message is so beautiful."


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: Screenwriter David Frigerio echoed his co-writers' sentiments in his explanation of the film's themes:


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: Through metaphor, the film intends to explore the idea that though sometimes humans may attempt to live their lives based on rules and logic, working diligently to suppress their feelings, deep down there are emotions that cannot be eliminated. The so-called "Signal" is that internal gnawing fire of a human's inner voice that can tell what is true if listened for, and that makes humans human. Eubank explained the meaning of the film's title by saying the "Signal" is a "waiting for something, listening for something, having an open heart... there's levels of what the 'Signal' really is."


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: In the film, the character Nic finally listens and hears "The Signal", and in a fiery burst discovers his true feeling, love. Having found his emotions, Nic chooses to follow a course of action based on love. Eubank discussed this in saying the critical part of the film is "to watch [Nic] arc out, to decide 'You know what, I’ve been trying to think logically about this the whole time... and [have] always been trying to run away from my emotions, here's a situation that says logically I shouldn't do this or I'm at great risk if I do this, so logically I should do nothing.' And he decides to do something, and to go for it, and he embraces it." This decision flies in the face of logic, but trusting love empowers him, and the transformation enables him to break out of the allegorical cave of darkness he had formerly found himself in and out into the wide field of reality.


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: At Sundance, the filmmakers and actor Brenton Thwaites described the film as a "Twilight Zone"–style story, drawing heavily on Plato's Allegory of the Cave, and intended as a modern interpretation of the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz", an element later noted by reviewers.


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: Filming began in May 2013 in New Mexico, on locations including Albuquerque, Los Lunas and Taos. The New Mexico Film Office also announced the start of filming. On June 18 and 19, crews were filming scenes on the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: The musical score for "The Signal" was written by composer and experimental musical instrument designer Nima Fakhrara. Fakhrara, who has a background as a dulcimer player and student of Persian classical music, approached the production seeking to contribute, having been a fan of Eubank's earlier film "Love".


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: As half of the film takes place indoors, Fakhara produced a number of custom instruments for the film designed to limit resonance, including a pagoda made of ceramic insulators, gongs, a number of bowed instruments, a steel marimba, and a tenor violin fashioned with viola strings. When the characters journey outdoors, the music and instruments change. A number of the custom instruments had to be transported to Skywalker Ranch, where Fakhrara was mastering the score. The music supervisor was Aminé Ramer.


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: Fakhrara and Eubank went through 45 versions of the music for the opening credits scene before they chose a final version.


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: On March 18, 2014, a teaser poster and some photos from the film were released, followed by the first official trailer next day. On March 26, 2014, Focus revealed a new poster for the film. On May 27, ""ruagitated.com"" was launched.


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: Originally supposed to be released by FilmDistrict, the project was transferred to Focus Features after the latter absorbed the former. Focus Features released the film worldwide on June 13, 2014 and in a limited release in North America for five weeks, grossing $600,896.


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: "The Signal" was released in a Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD combo pack on September 23, 2014 by Focus Features and Universal Studios Home Entertainment. It earned $822,917 in video sales in the United States.


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: , the film holds a 61% approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 89 reviews with an average rating of 5.84 out of 10. The site's consensus says, "Director William Eubank clearly has big ideas and an impressive level of technical expertise; unfortunately, "The Signal" fritters them away on a poorly constructed story." The film received a score of 54 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 34 reviews.


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a "B" rating, saying, "Hard science fiction meets tender hearts in a slow-burn, twist-filled thriller... The trio wind up in an abandoned shack in the middle of the Nevada desert, where they are attacked by forces unknown. It gets worse!... What is happening? Will Nic escape? And do we even want him to, given that the facility's workers all wear protective suits when interacting with their guests/test subjects?" The review concludes that "all this sounds like a souped-up episode of "The Twilight Zone" or "The X-Files"."


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: Nicolas Rapold of "The New York Times" wrote, "William Eubank's "The Signal" demonstrates the fine line between paranoid science-fiction fantasy and demo reel... After a brief excursion into found-footage horror, Nic wakes up in one of those antiseptic, white-walled secret compounds used for human experimentation in the movies. Mr. Eubank plays with our minds, and Nic's, for a while." Rapold judges that "the story evolves into a kind of poor man's "X-Men"," though "the grandiosity of the film's setups partly fits in with the guys' sense of righteous-geek drama, and you wouldn't be surprised to see Mr. Eubank directing a bigger-budget movie down the road..."


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: Michael O'Sullivan of "The Washington Post" gave the film a one-and-a-half star rating and a half-scathing review: "Two of the major plot turns in "The Signal"—a good-looking sci-fi thriller with more fashion sense than brains—hinge on misdirection involving simple arithmetic and spelling. I won't spoil the fun by elaborating further, but when each moment arrives, it's cheapened by the implicit insult to the audience's intelligence. The twists feel less like jolts of genuine surprise than like being had by a third-grader with a good knock-knock joke." O'Sullivan adds, "I'll say one thing: The general state of confusion fostered by the head-scratching plot is a surprisingly effective way of maintaining continued engagement with it—if by 'engagement' you mean 'This better lead somewhere.' Oh, it does. It's just a less than wholly satisfying destination, despite some fun detours. (Veteran character actress Lin Shay, in a nutty little cameo, is one such pleasure.)"


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: In contrast, "USA Today" wrote, "Had Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch made a movie together, it might have looked something like "The Signal". Visually stunning, emotionally stunted and weird as all get-out, this sci-fi tale (**1/2 stars out of four, rated PG-13...) isn't worthy of the canon of either master of disturbing imagery. But "Signal" thinks big, takes chances and has enough arresting scenes to stand apart from the science fiction films of late... "Signal" is so determined to remain mysterious—and pack a visual punch at the movie's climax—that it withholds too much... Instead, "Signal" aims to get you thinking. The story can be maddening to follow, but it sure is cool to look at."


title: The Signal (2014 film)

text: Geoff Berkshire, who watched the film at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, gave a similarly admiring yet disappointed review, calling it "Indebted to both "District 9" and "The Blair Witch Project", but unlikely to enjoy either of those films' sleeper success": "Exceedingly stylish and ultimately quite silly, "The Signal" is a sci-fi head trip better appreciated for the journey than the destination. The less audiences know going in, the more intrigued they'll be by the story's not entirely predictable twists and turns." He writes that when "the film pulls its flashiest twist, which turns Nic into something like the Six Billion Dollar Teen," "it's also the clear highlight of a film more interested in surface flash than in narrative coherence or character depth."


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Voting rights in the United States, specifically the enfranchisement and disenfranchisement of different groups, has been a moral and political issue throughout United States history.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Eligibility to vote in the United States is governed by the United States Constitution and by federal and state laws. Several constitutional amendments (the Fifteenth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-sixth specifically) require that voting rights of U.S. citizens cannot be abridged on account of race, color, previous condition of servitude, sex, or age (18 and older); the constitution as originally written did not establish any such rights during 1787–1870, except that if a state permitted a person to vote for the "most numerous branch" of its state legislature, it was required to permit that person to vote in elections for members of the United States House of Representatives. In the absence of a specific federal law or constitutional provision, each state is given considerable discretion to establish qualifications for suffrage and candidacy within its own respective jurisdiction; in addition, states and lower level jurisdictions establish election systems, such as at-large or single member district elections for county councils or school boards. Thus, the enfranchisement or disenfranchisement in one state may be stricter or more lenient than in another state. Beyond qualifications for suffrage, rules and regulations concerning voting (such as the poll tax) have been contested since the advent of Jim Crow laws and related provisions that indirectly disenfranchised racial minorities.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: A historic turning point was the 1964 Supreme Court case "Reynolds v. Sims" that ruled both houses of all state legislatures had to be based on electoral districts that were approximately equal in population size, under the "one man, one vote" principle. The Warren Court's decisions on two previous landmark cases—"Baker v. Carr (1962)" and "Wesberry v. Sanders (1964)"—also played a fundamental role in establishing the nationwide "one man, one vote" electoral system. Since the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Twenty-fourth Amendment, and related laws, voting rights have been legally considered an issue related to election systems. In 1972, the Burger Court ruled that state legislatures had to redistrict every ten years based on census results; at that point, many had not redistricted for decades, often leading to a rural bias.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: In cases of county or municipal elections, at-large voting has been repeatedly challenged when found to dilute the voting power of significant minorities in violation of the Voting Rights Act. In the early 20th century, numerous cities established small commission forms of government in the belief that "better government" could result from the suppression of ward politics. Commissioners were elected by the majority of voters, excluding candidates who could not afford large campaigns or who appealed to a minority. Generally the solution to such violations has been to adopt single-member districts (SMDs), but alternative election systems, such as limited voting or cumulative voting, have also been used since the late 20th century to correct for dilution of voting power and enable minorities to elect candidates of their choice.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: The District of Columbia and five major territories of the United States have one non-voting member each (in the United States House of Representatives) and no representation in the United States Senate. People in the U.S. territories cannot vote for president of the United States. People in the District of Columbia can vote for the president because of the Twenty-third Amendment.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: The right to vote is the foundation of any democracy. Chief Justice Earl Warren, for example, wrote in "Reynolds v. Sims", 377 U.S. 533, 555 (1964): "The right to vote freely for the candidate of one's choice is of the essence of a democratic society, and any restrictions on that right strike at the heart of representative government. [...] Undoubtedly, the right of suffrage is a fundamental matter in a free and democratic society. Especially since the right to exercise the franchise in a free and unimpaired manner is preservative of other basic civil and political rights, any alleged infringement of the right of citizens to vote must be carefully and meticulously scrutinized." Justice Hugo Black shared the same sentiment by stating in "Wesberry v. Sanders", 376 U.S. 1, 17 (1964): "No right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live. Other rights, even the most basic, are illusory if the right to vote is undermined."


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: In the 17th-century Thirteen Colonies, suffrage was often restricted by property qualifications or with a religious test. In 1660, Plymouth Colony restricted suffrage with a specified property qualification, and in 1671, Plymouth Colony restricted suffrage further to only freemen "orthodox in the fundamentals of religion". Connecticut in mid-century also restricted suffrage with a specified property qualification and a religious test, and in Pennsylvania, the Province of Carolina, and the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations voting rights were restricted to Christians only. Under the Duke's Laws in colonial New York, suffrage did not require a religious test but was restricted to landholders. In Virginia, all white freemen were allowed to vote until suffrage was restricted temporarily to householders from 1655 to 1656, to freeholders from 1670 to 1676, and following the death of Nathaniel Bacon in 1676, to freeholders permanently. Quakers were not permitted to vote in Plymouth Colony or in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and along with Baptists, were not permitted to vote in several other colonies as well, and Catholics were disenfranchised following the Glorious Revolution (1688–1689) in Maryland, New York, Rhode Island, Carolina, and Virginia.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: In the 18th-century Thirteen Colonies, suffrage was restricted to European men with the following property qualifications:


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: By the time the United States Constitution came into effect on March 9, 1789, a small number of free Blacks were among the voting citizens (men of property) in some states. The Constitution did not originally define who was eligible to vote, allowing each state to determine who was eligible. In the early history of the U.S., some states allowed only white male adult property owners to vote, while others either did not specify race, or specifically protected the rights of men of any race to vote. Women were largely prohibited from voting, as were men without property. Women could vote in New Jersey until 1807 (provided they could meet the property requirement) and in some local jurisdictions in other northern states. Free Blacks could also vote in these jurisdictions, provided they could meet the property requirement. In New Jersey particularly, these property requirements were purposely set quite low.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Beginning around 1790, individual states began to reassess property ownership as a qualification for enfranchisement in favor of gender and race, with most states disenfranchising women and non-white men. By 1856, white men were allowed to vote in all states regardless of property ownership, although requirements for paying tax remained in five states. Several states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey, stripped the free black males of the right to vote in the same period.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Four of the fifteen post-Civil War constitutional amendments were ratified to extend voting rights to different groups of citizens. These extensions state that voting rights cannot be denied or abridged based on the following:


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Following the Reconstruction Era until the culmination of the Civil Rights Movement, Jim Crow laws such as literacy tests, poll taxes, and religious tests were some of the state and local laws used in various parts of the United States to deny immigrants (including legal ones and newly naturalized citizens), non-white citizens, Native Americans, and any other locally "undesirable" groups from exercising voting rights granted under the Constitution. Because of such state and local discriminatory practices, over time, the federal role in elections has increased, through amendments to the Constitution and enacted legislation. These reforms in the 19th and 20th centuries extended the franchise to non-whites, those who do not own property, women, and those 18–21 years old.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Since the "right to vote" is not explicitly stated in the U.S. Constitution except in the above referenced amendments, and only in reference to the fact that the franchise cannot be denied or abridged based solely on the aforementioned qualifications, the "right to vote" is perhaps better understood, in layman's terms, as only prohibiting certain forms of legal discrimination in establishing qualifications for suffrage. States may deny the "right to vote" for other reasons. For example, many states require eligible citizens to register to vote a set number of days prior to the election in order to vote. More controversial restrictions include those laws that prohibit convicted felons from voting, even those who have served their sentences. In addition, voter ID laws vary between the states, with some states strictly requiring a photo ID for one to vote while other states may not require any ID at all. Another example, seen in "Bush v. Gore", are disputes as to what rules should apply in vote counting or election recounts.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: A state may choose to fill an office by means other than an election. For example, upon death or resignation of a legislator, the state may allow the affiliated political party to choose a replacement to hold office until the next scheduled election. Such an appointment is often affirmed by the governor.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: The Constitution, in Article VI, clause (paragraph) 3, does state that "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States".


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: From 1778 to 1871, the government tried to resolve its relationship with the various native tribes by negotiating treaties. These treaties formed agreements between two sovereign nations, stating that Native American people were citizens of their tribe, living within the boundaries of the United States. The treaties were negotiated by the executive branch and ratified by the U.S. Senate. It said that native tribes would give up their rights to hunt and live on huge parcels of land that they had inhabited in exchange for trade goods, yearly cash annuity payments, and assurances that no further demands would be made on them. Most often, part of the land would be "reserved" exclusively for the tribe's use.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Throughout the 1800s, many native tribes gradually lost claim to the lands they had inhabited for centuries through the federal government's Indian Removal policy to relocate tribes from the Southeast and Northwest to west of the Mississippi River. European-American settlers continued to encroach on western lands. Only in 1879, in the Standing Bear trial, were American Indians recognized as persons in the eyes of the United States government. Judge Elmer Scipio Dundy of Nebraska declared that Indians were people within the meaning of the laws, and they had the rights associated with a writ of habeas corpus. However, Judge Dundy left unsettled the question as to whether Native Americans were guaranteed US citizenship.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Although Native Americans were born within the national boundaries of the United States, those on Indian reservations were considered citizens of their own tribes, rather than of the United States. They were denied the right to vote because they were not considered citizens by law and were thus ineligible. Many Native Americans were told they would become citizens if they gave up their tribal affiliations in 1887 under the Dawes Act, which allocated communal lands to individual households and was intended to aid in the assimilation of Native Americans into majority culture. This still did not guarantee their right to vote. In 1924, the remaining Native Americans, estimated at one-third, became United States citizens through the Indian Citizenship Act. Many western states, however, continued to restrict Native American ability to vote through property requirements, economic pressures, hiding the polls, and condoning of physical violence against those who voted. Since the late 20th century, they have been protected under provisions of the Voting Rights Act as a racial minority, and in some areas, language minority, gaining election materials in their native languages.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: The Alaskan Territory did not consider Alaska Natives to be citizens of the United States and so they could not vote. An exception to this rule was that indigenous women were considered citizens if they were married to white men. In 1915, the Territorial Legislature passed a law that allowed Alaska Natives the right to vote if they gave up their "tribal customs and traditions." William Paul (Tlingit) fought for the right of Alaska Natives to vote during the 1920s. Others, like Tillie Paul (Tlingit) and Charlie Jones (Tlingit), were arrested for voting because they were still not considered citizens. Later, Paul would win a court case that set the precedent that Alaska Natives were legally allowed to vote. In 1925, a literacy test was passed in Alaska to suppress the votes of Alaska Natives. After passage of the Alaska Equal Rights Act of 1945, Alaska Natives gained more rights, but there was still voter discrimination. When Alaska became a state, the new Constitution of Alaska provided Alaskans with a more lenient literacy test. In 1970, the Alaska Legislature ratified a constitutional amendment against state voter literacy tests. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA), modified in 1975, provided additional help for Alaska Natives who do not speak English, which affects around 14 census areas. Many villages with large Alaska Native populations continue to face difficulties voting.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: In several British North American colonies, before and after the 1776 Declaration of Independence, Jews, Quakers, Catholics, and/or Atheists were excluded from the franchise and/or from running for elections.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: The Delaware Constitution of 1776 stated that "Every person who shall be chosen a member of either house, or appointed to any office or place of trust, before taking his seat, or entering upon the execution of his office, shall... also make and subscribe the following declaration, to wit: "I, A B. do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed for evermore; and I do acknowledge the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration."". This was repealed by Article I, Section II. of the 1792 Constitution: "No religious test shall be required as a qualification to any office, or public trust, under this State". The 1778 Constitution of the State of South Carolina stated, "No person shall be eligible to sit in the house of representatives unless he be of the Protestant religion", the 1777 Constitution of the State of Georgia (art. VI) that "The representatives shall be chosen out of the residents in each county... and they shall be of the Protestant religion".


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: With the growth in the number of Baptists in Virginia before the American Revolution, who challenged the established Church of England, the issues of religious freedom became important to rising leaders such as James Madison. As a young lawyer, he defended Baptist preachers who were not licensed by (and were opposed by) the established state Anglican Church. He carried developing ideas about religious freedom to be incorporated into the constitutional convention of the United States.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: In 1787, Article One of the United States Constitution stated that "the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature". More significantly, Article Six disavowed the religious test requirements of several states, saying: "[N]o religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: But, in Maryland, Jewish Americans were excluded from State office until the law requiring candidates to affirm a belief in an afterlife was repealed in 1828.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: At the time of ratification of the Constitution in the late 18th century, most states had property qualifications which restricted the franchise; the exact amount varied by state, but by some estimates, more than half of white men were disenfranchised.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Several states granted suffrage to free men of color after the Revolution, including North Carolina. This fact was noted by Justice Benjamin Robbins Curtis' dissent in "Dred Scott v. Sandford" (1857), as he emphasized that blacks had been considered citizens at the time the Constitution was ratified:


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: When the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868 after the Civil War, it granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction. In 1869, the Fifteenth Amendment prohibited the government from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". The major effect of these amendments was to enfranchise African American men, the overwhelming majority of whom were freedmen in the South.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: After the war, some Southern states passed "Black Codes", state laws to restrict the new freedoms of African Americans. They attempted to control their movement, assembly, working conditions and other civil rights. Some states also prohibited them from voting.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: The Fifteenth Amendment, one of three ratified after the American Civil War to grant freedmen full rights of citizenship, prevented any state from denying the right to vote to any citizen based on race. This was primarily related to protecting the franchise of freedmen, but it also applied to non-white minorities, such as Mexican Americans in Texas. The state governments under Reconstruction adopted new state constitutions or amendments designed to protect the ability of freedmen to vote. The white resistance to black suffrage after the war regularly erupted into violence as white groups tried to protect their power. Particularly in the South, in the aftermath of the Civil War whites made efforts to suppress freedmen's voting. In the 1860s, secret vigilante groups such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) used violence and intimidation to keep freedmen in a controlled role and reestablish white supremacy. The United States Army and Department Of Justice were successfully able to disband the Klan through prosecution and black freedmen registered and voted in high numbers, many of whom were elected to local offices through the 1880s.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: In the mid-1870s, the insurgencies continued with a rise in more powerful white paramilitary groups, such as the White League, originating in Louisiana in 1874 after a disputed gubernatorial election; and the Red Shirts, originating in Mississippi in 1875 and developing numerous chapters in North and South Carolina; as well as other "White Line" rifle clubs. They operated openly, were more organized than the KKK, and directed their efforts at political goals: to disrupt Republican organizing, turn Republicans out of office, and intimidate or kill blacks to suppress black voting. They worked as "the military arm of the Democratic Party". For instance, estimates were that 150 blacks were killed in North Carolina before the 1876 elections. Economic tactics such as eviction from rental housing or termination of employment were also used to suppress the black vote. The federal government withdrew its troops as a result of a national compromise related to the presidency, officially ending Reconstruction, and soon afterward the Supreme Court would strike down nearly every law passed through reconstruction that protected freedman from racially motivated violence from private actors while also taking a narrow view to the federal government's ability to enforce laws against state actors who perpetrated racially motivated violence. White Democrats regained power in state legislatures across the South by the late 1870s and declined to enforce laws against white supremacist paramilitary groups.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: African Americans were a majority in three Southern states following the Civil War, and represented over 40% of the population in four other states and many whites feared and resented the political power exercised by freedmen. After ousting the Republicans, whites worked to restore white supremacy.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Although elections were often surrounded by violence, blacks continued to vote and gained many local offices in the late 19th century. In the late 19th century, a Populist-Republican coalition in several states gained governorships and some congressional seats in 1894. To prevent such a coalition from forming again and reduce election violence, the Democratic Party, dominant in all southern state legislatures, took action to disfranchise most blacks and many poor whites outright.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: From 1890 to 1908, ten of the eleven former Confederate states completed political suppression and exclusion of these groups by ratifying new constitutions or amendments which incorporated provisions to make voter registration more difficult. These included such requirements as payment of poll taxes, complicated record keeping, complicated timing of registration and length of residency in relation to elections, with related record-keeping requirements; felony disenfranchisement focusing on crimes thought to be committed by African Americans, and a literacy test or comprehension test.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: This was defended openly, on the floor of the Senate, by South Carolina Senator and former Governor Benjamin Tillman:


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Prospective voters had to prove the ability to read and write the English language to white voter registrars, who in practice applied subjective requirements. Blacks were often denied the right to vote on this basis. Even well-educated blacks were often told they had "failed" such a test, if in fact, it had been administered. On the other hand, illiterate whites were sometimes allowed to vote through a "grandfather clause," which waived literacy requirements if one's grandfather had been a qualified voter before 1866, or had served as a soldier, or was from a foreign country. As most blacks had grandfathers who were slaves before 1866 and could not have fulfilled any of those conditions, they could not use the grandfather clause exemption. Selective enforcement of the poll tax was frequently also used to disqualify black and poor white voters. As a result of these measures, at the turn of the century voter rolls dropped markedly across the South. Most blacks and many poor whites were excluded from the political system for decades. Unable to vote, they were also excluded from juries or running for any office.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: In Alabama, for example, its 1901 constitution restricted the franchise for poor whites as well as blacks. It contained requirements for payment of cumulative poll taxes, completion of literacy tests, and increased residency at state, county and precinct levels, effectively disenfranchising tens of thousands of poor whites as well as most blacks. Historian J. Morgan Kousser found, "They disfranchised these whites as willingly as they deprived blacks of the vote." By 1941, more whites than blacks in total had been disenfranchised.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Although African Americans quickly began legal challenges to such provisions in the 19th century, it was years before any were successful before the U.S. Supreme Court. Booker T. Washington, better known for his public stance of trying to work within societal constraints of the period at Tuskegee University, secretly helped fund and arrange representation for numerous legal challenges to disfranchisement. He called upon wealthy Northern allies and philanthropists to raise funds for the cause. The Supreme Court's upholding of Mississippi's new constitution, in "Williams v. Mississippi" (1898), encouraged other states to follow the Mississippi plan of disfranchisement. African Americans brought other legal challenges, as in "Giles v. Harris" (1903) and "Giles v. Teasley" (1904), but the Supreme Court upheld Alabama constitutional provisions. In 1915, Oklahoma was the last state to append a grandfather clause to its literacy requirement due to Supreme Court cases.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: From early in the 20th century, the newly established National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) took the lead in organizing or supporting legal challenges to segregation and disfranchisement. Gradually they planned the strategy of which cases to take forward. In "Guinn v. United States" (1915), the first case in which the NAACP filed a brief, the Supreme Court struck down the grandfather clause in Oklahoma and Maryland. Other states in which it was used had to retract their legislation as well. The challenge was successful.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: But, nearly as rapidly as the Supreme Court determined a specific provision was unconstitutional, state legislatures developed new statutes to continue disenfranchisement. For instance, in "Smith v. Allwright" (1944), the Supreme Court struck down the use of state-sanctioned all-white primaries by the Southern Democrats. States developed new restrictions on black voting; Alabama passed a law giving county registrars more authority as to which questions they asked applicants in comprehension or literacy tests. The NAACP continued with steady progress in legal challenges to disenfranchisement and segregation.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: In 1957, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 to implement the Fifteenth Amendment. It established the United States Civil Rights Commission; among its duties is to investigate voter discrimination.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: As late as 1962, programs such as Operation Eagle Eye in Arizona attempted to stymie minority voting through literacy tests. The Twenty-fourth Amendment was ratified in 1964 to prohibit poll taxes as a condition of voter registration and voting in federal elections. Many states continued to use them in state elections as a means of reducing the number of voters.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: The American Civil Rights Movement, through such events as the Selma to Montgomery marches and Freedom Summer in Mississippi, gained passage by the United States Congress of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which authorized federal oversight of voter registration and election practices and other enforcement of voting rights. Congress passed the legislation because it found "case by case litigation was inadequate to combat widespread and persistent discrimination in voting". Activism by African Americans helped secure an expanded and protected franchise that has benefited all Americans, including racial and language minorities.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: The bill provided for federal oversight, if necessary, to ensure just voter registration and election procedures. The rate of African-American registration and voting in Southern states climbed dramatically and quickly, but it has taken years of federal oversight to work out the processes and overcome local resistance. In addition, it was not until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6–3 in "Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections" (1966) that all state poll taxes (for state elections) were officially declared unconstitutional as violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This removed a burden on the poor.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Legal challenges have continued under the Voting Rights Act, primarily in areas of redistricting and election systems, for instance, challenging at-large election systems that effectively reduce the ability of minority groups to elect candidates of their choice. Such challenges have particularly occurred at the county and municipal level, including for school boards, where exclusion of minority groups and candidates at such levels has been persistent in some areas of the country. This reduces the ability of women and minorities to participate in the political system and gain entry-level experience.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Voting rights for Asian Americans have been continuously battled for in the United States since the initial significant wave of Asian immigration to the country in the mid-nineteenth century. The escalation of voting rights issues for Asian immigrants had started with the citizenship status of Chinese Americans from 1882 with the Chinese Exclusion Act that was inspired by and built upon the Naturalization Act of 1870. The latter act helped the judicial system decide a person's ethnicity, and if the person was white, they could proceed with the immigration process. While the Chinese Exclusion Act specifically targeted and banned the influx of Asian immigrants looking for work on the west coast due to the country that they were from and their ethnicity. Without the ability to become an American citizen, Asian immigrants were prohibited from voting or even immigrating to the United States during this time.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Things started to improve when the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in the mid-twentieth century, and Chinese immigrants were once again able to seek citizenship and voting rights. In spite of these setbacks, it was not a complete ban for Asian Americans; simultaneously, a minority of Asian Americans were politically active during this era of the 1870 Naturalization Act and Chinese exclusion. However, the Asian American community gained significant advancements in their voting rights later, with the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952. With this Act, the Asian American community was able to seek citizenship that was not on the basis of race but on a quota system that was dependent upon their country of emigration. Shortly after the McCarran-Walter Act, the Voting Rights Act was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. It thus came a new era of civil liberties for Asian Americans who were in the voting minority.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: A parallel, yet separate, movement was that for women's suffrage. Leaders of the suffrage movement included Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Carrie Chapman Catt, and Alice Paul. In some ways this, too, could be said to have grown out of the American Civil War, as women had been strong leaders of the abolition movement. Middle- and upper-class women generally became more politically active in the northern tier during and after the war.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: In 1848, the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women's rights convention, was held in Seneca Falls, New York. Of the 300 present, 68 women and 32 men signed the Declaration of Sentiments which defined the women's rights movement. The first National Women's Rights Convention took place in 1850 in Worcester, Massachusetts, attracting more than 1,000 participants. This national convention was held yearly through 1860.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: When Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed the National Women Suffrage Association, their goal was to help women gain voting rights through reliance on the Constitution. Also, in 1869 Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell formed the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). However, AWSA focused on gaining voting rights for women through the amendment process. Although these two organization were fighting for the same cause, it was not until 1890 that they merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). After the merger of the two organizations, the (NAWSA) waged a state-by-state campaign to obtain voting rights for women.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Wyoming was the first state in which women were able to vote, although it was a condition of the transition to statehood. Utah was the second territory to allow women to vote, but the federal Edmunds–Tucker Act of 1887 repealed woman's suffrage in Utah. Colorado was the first established state to allow women to vote on the same basis as men. Some other states also extended the franchise to women before the Constitution was amended to this purpose.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: During the 1910s, Alice Paul, assisted by Lucy Burns and many others, organized such events and organizations as the 1913 Women's Suffrage Parade, the National Woman's Party, and the Silent Sentinels. At the culmination of the suffragists' requests and protests, ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote in time to participate in the Presidential election of 1920.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Another political movement that was largely driven by women in the same era was the anti-alcohol Temperance movement, which led to the Eighteenth Amendment and Prohibition.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Suffrage was never extended to members of the United States Armed Forces due to military status - individual members of the military received suffrage in accordance with the distinct categorical extensions that occurred throughout the nation's history. Matters pertaining to military members voting rights in elections in the United States have focused around two issues: absentee voting rights and requirements for nonpartisanship in election-related activities.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Many military members stationed overseas were historically excluded from voting, de facto, due to state laws pertaining to absentee voting. Scholars have written that state-level policies to allow absentee voting for military members were often enacted when a political party in power thought that doing so would improve their reelection rates. For example, at the time of the American Civil War, it was widely believed that military members would vote Republican, and thus, states with Republican governors and legislatures tended to pass bills allowing military members to absentee vote or commission election officials to go to the battlefields and garrisons to collect votes. States with Democratic governors and legislatures tended not to pass such bills.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Similarly, a partisan controversy emerged over whether to simplify voting procedures to allow for absentee balloting for military members in the lead up to the 1944 elections, given that fewer than 2% of military members on active duty would be able to vote under current state laws at that time. The military and the general public were thought to be highly supportive of absentee ballot measures that would enable military members to vote while stationed overseas in active duty. However, following a December 1943 Gallup Poll reporting that military members would favor President Franklin D. Roosevelt (a Democrat) by 61 percent, and the belief that the military vote could swing the upcoming election, a fairly split Seventy-eighth Congress was slow to pass measures to enfranchise military members stationed overseas. Generally, Democrats favored enabling absentee ballot procedures for military members, believing that a majority of the members of the armed forces would support their party, while Republicans were generally opposed, believing that their reelection would be disadvantaged. An exception to this pattern was that Southern Democrats tended to oppose the measures because it would enfranchise thousands of persons who were disqualified under state laws, such as Black Americans. The initial legislation (the Green-Lucas Bill) was rejected, and Congress instead passed a measure (which became Public Law 712) that made ballots contingent upon state certification.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Federal legislation, such as the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) of 1986 and the of 2010 have removed the power from the states to control absentee voting regulations for military members --- military members are now able to absentee vote, no matter where they are stationed.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Military members are required to publicly maintain a nonpartisan stance on political matters while acting in their official capacity - they may not engage in activities that associate the Department of Defense with any partisan political campaign or elections, candidate, cause or issue. The Department of Defense Directive 1344.10 and the Hatch Act outline that members of the armed forces who are on active duty are permitted to express their personal opinions on political candidates, make a monetary contribution to a campaign, sign a petition to place a candidate's name on the ballot, and attend a political event as a spectator. Members on active duty may not participate in partisan activities such as soliciting or engaging in partisan fundraiser activities, serving as the sponsor of a partisan club, or speaking before a partisan gathering. In addition, all military members, including National Guard and Reserve forces, are prohibited from wearing military uniforms at political campaign events. The Hatch Act allows most federal employees to actively participate in political activities outside of the workplace. There are, however, significant restrictions on fundraising, running for office in partisan elections and using one's authority in the political arena. Senate-confirmed presidential appointees and career and non-career Senior Executive Service employees are subject to additional limitations.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Some notable military members, including William Tecumseh Sherman, George C. Marshall, and David Petraeus, claim that they did not vote in U.S. presidential elections. The three, along with many officers from Marshall's generation, abstained from voting in order to avoid any sense of partisanship that could impair their professional judgement.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Washington, D.C., was created from a portion of the states of Maryland and Virginia in 1801. The Virginia portion was retroceded (returned) to Virginia upon request of the residents, by an Act of Congress in 1846 to protect slavery, and restore state and federal voting rights in that portion of Virginia. When Maryland delegated a portion of its land to Congress so it could be used as the Nation's capital, Congress did not continue Maryland Voting Laws. It canceled all state and federal elections starting with 1802. Local elections limped on in some neighborhoods, until 1871, when local elections were also forbidden by the U.S. Congress. The U.S. Congress is the National Legislature. Under Article I, Section 8, Clause 17, Congress has the sole authority to exercise "Exclusive Legislature in all cases whatsoever" over the nation's capital and over federal military bases. Active disfranchisement is typically a States Rights Legislative issue, where the removal of voting rights is permitted. At the national level, the federal government typically ignored voting rights issues, or affirmed that they were extended.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Congress, when exercising "exclusive legislation" over U.S. Military Bases in the United States, and Washington, D.C., viewed its power as strong enough to remove all voting rights. All state and federal elections were canceled by Congress in D.C. and all of Maryland's voting Rights laws no longer applied to D.C. when Maryland gave up that land. Congress did not pass laws to establish local voting processes in the District of Columbia. This omission of law strategy to disfranchise is contained in the Congressional debates in Annals of Congress in 1800 and 1801.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: In 1986, the US Congress voted to restore voting rights on U.S. Military bases for all state and federal elections.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: D.C. citizens were granted the right to vote in Presidential elections in 1961 after ratification of the Twenty-third Amendment. The citizens and territory converted in 1801 were represented by John Chew Thomas from Maryland's 2nd, and William Craik from Maryland's 3rd Congressional Districts, which were redrawn and removed from the city.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: No full Congressional elections have been held since in D.C., a gap continuing since 1801. Congress created a non-voting substitute for a U.S. Congressman, a Delegate, between 1871 and 1875, but then abolished that post as well. Congress permitted restoration of local elections and home rule for the District on December 24, 1973. In 1971, Congress still opposed restoring the position of a full U.S. Congressman for Washington, D.C. That year it re-established the position of non-voting Delegate to the U.S. Congress.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: A third voting rights movement was won in the 1960s to lower the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen. Activists noted that most of the young men who were being drafted to fight in the Vietnam War were too young to have any voice in the selection of the leaders who were sending them to fight. Some states had already lowered the voting age: notably Georgia, Kentucky, and Hawaii, had already permitted voting by persons younger than twenty-one.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: The Twenty-sixth Amendment, ratified in 1971, prohibits federal and state laws which set a minimum voting age higher than 18 years. As of 2008, no state has opted for an earlier age, although some state governments have discussed it. California has, since the 1980s, allowed persons who are 17 to register to vote for an election where the election itself will occur on or after their 18th birthday, and several states including Indiana allow 17-year-olds to vote in a primary election provided they will be 18 by the general election.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Prisoner voting rights are defined by individual states, and the laws are different from state to state. Some states allow only individuals on probation to vote. Others allow individuals on parole and probation. As of 2012, only Florida, Kentucky and Virginia continue to impose a lifelong denial of the right to vote to all citizens with a felony record, absent a restoration of rights granted by the Governor or state legislature. However, in Kentucky, a felon's rights can be restored after the completion of a restoration process to regain civil rights.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: In 2007, the Florida Legislature restored voting rights to convicted felons who had served their sentences. In March 2011, however, Governor Rick Scott reversed the 2007 reforms. He signed legislation that permanently disenfranchises citizens with past felony convictions. After the 2018 Florida Amendment 4 referendum, however, Florida residents voted to restore voting rights to roughly 1.4 million felons who have completed their sentences.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: In July 2005, Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack issued an executive order restoring the right to vote for all persons who have completed supervision. On October 31, 2005, the Iowa Supreme Court upheld mass reenfranchisement of convicted felons. Nine other states disenfranchise felons for various lengths of time following the completion of their probation or parole.


title: Voting rights in the United States

text: Other than Maine and Vermont, all U.S. states prohibit felons from voting while they are in prison. In Puerto Rico, felons in prison are allowed to vote in elections.