The Fifteenth Amendment, ratified in 1870, this amendment forbad discrimination in voting on the count of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
· Violence and economic reprisal are used to prevent Black men from voting throughout the Southern states
· Opposition to African American voting also takes place in Northern and Midwestern states
· With ratification of the 15th Amendment, the Constitution explicitly excluded women of all races from the right to vote
· The 15th Amendment does not apply to Native-Americans or Asians because most are not considered citizens
· The 15th Amendment does not apply to Mexican-Americans in New Mexico and Arizona because they live in territories that are not yet states
· Mexican-Americans in Texas and California continue to be discouraged from voting through violence and economic retaliation

The Voting Rights Act is expanded to address voting rights of "language minorities." Based on the determination that voting discrimination against language minorities "is pervasive and national in scope," provisions are added to ensure that citizens who speak languages other than English are not denied their voting rights. For example, non-English voting materials and assistance now have to be provided where needed.

Prior to the election of 2000, Jeb Bush the Republican Governor of Florida — and brother of Presidential candidate George Bush — hires a private company long associated with the Republican party to "purge" the Florida voting rolls of "ineligible" voters. Along with voters who really are ineligible, tens of thousands of legally registered Black voters are illegally stripped from the rolls. When they arrive at the polls on election day, they are told they cannot vote. 

This denial of voting rights to African-American voters in Florida is the direct cause of George Bush's supposed 537 vote "victory" in that state. It is this phony "win" (plus the votes of the 5 Republican appointees on the Supreme Court) that makes him President, even though Gore receives 500,000 more votes nation-wide than Bush. 

According to the report issued by the U.S. Commission on Civil rights: 

• Widespread voter disenfranchisement — not the dead-heat contest — was the extraordinary feature in the Florida election. 
• Violations of the Voting Rights Act occurred in Florida and there was widespread denial of voting rights. 
• Black voters were nearly 10 times more likely than non-Black voters to have their ballots rejected. 
• The state's highest officials responsible for ensuring fairness in the election failed to fulfill their responsibilities and were subsequently unwilling to take responsibility. 

Had tens of thousands of Black voters not been illegally denied their right to vote, Democratic candidate Al Gore would certainly have carried the state by a comfortable margin — and he would have been President.