I'm going to be talking about the steps used to outlaw literacy tests and poll taxes, end the disenfranchisement of minorities, and give the Federal government the authority to take over voter registration (in counties with patterns of persistent discrimination).

or preventing a person or group of people from having the right to vote

There are two different types of disenfranchisement, direct and indirect.

Direct: actions that explicitly prevent people from voting or having their votes counted. Examples include violence, literacy tests, and poll taxes

Indirect: actions that attempt to prevent people’s votes from having an impact on political outcomes (gerrymandering, ballot box stuffing, stripping elected officials of their powers. Examples include ballot box stuffing, throwing out Democratic votes, or changing votes.

Disenfranchisement brought about a one-party rule in the Southern states, assuring victory to any Democratic nominee.

http://www.umich.edu/~lawrace/disenfranchise1.htm

Violence: one of the principal means of direct disenfranchisement. For example, the murders of three American civil rights' workers, James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael "Mickey" Schwerner, who were shot at point-blank range by members of the Mississippi Ku Klux Klan in the summer of 1964. The three had been in Mississippi on the "Freedom Summer" campaign, attempting to register African American voters.

By the early 1920s the Klan had attracted over two million members. Infighting and schisms rocked the movement until it had all but disappeared in the late 30s. That is, until the voting rights movement. The Klan again gained a presence in 1945, mainly in Southern states, and the 60s civil rights era further energized the group.

In 1963, four little girls were killed in a church bombing and in 1964 the before mentioned murders occurred. Mississippi did not try the case at the time. However, on the 41st anniversary of the 1964 murders the KKK leader was found guilty on three counts of manslaughter and sentenced to 60 years in jail.

Countless people were murdered in the civil rights movement but before the advent of television and newspapers it was easy for the public to ignore it. Especially those in the north who were rarely, if ever, exposed to such crimes. The media was a major force in persuading the public that there was a major issue and it needed to be fixed (i.e. Selma).

There are several forms of voting fraud: ballot box stuffing, throwing out non-Democratic votes, counting votes as Democratic even if they weren't. Ballot box stuffing started as, well, one person stuffing multiple votes into a box where each person was only allotted one vote. Today it is mainly done through telegraphing, or citing for people who did not show up to the polls, and padding, or voting for dead or fictitious characters. Other forms of electoral fraud are intimidation, vote buying, misinformation, misleading or confusing ballot papers, and tampering with electronic voting machines.

Voting fraud is still a major problem, with suspected illegal immigrants on voter rolls and others using the names of the deceased. However, this problem is not nearly as large as it was in the late 19th century. The Department of Homeland Security refuses to share its immigration database with election officials (to cross reference who's votes are legal/valid and who's aren't) believing it will help maintain fair, honest elections.

Poll taxes (for primary elections leading to general elections for federal office) were abolished in the Twenty-fourth Amendment (1964).

Although the poll tax was instituted after Reconstruction (in 7 Southern states), qualifications to vote based on some element of property ownership can be traced back to colonial times. The tax was a flat fee required to be paid before voting, frequently as high as two hundred dollars a person. Blacks rarely (if ever) had that much disposable cash, creating a disproportionate discrimination.

The tax was finally abolished when the US government realized it was an impediment to individuals' suffrage rights. This did require an amendment (as mentioned earlier). Despite this, many states continued searching for ways to use poll taxes; it was stopped in 1965's Harman v. Forssenius. The Supreme Court struck down a Virginia law which required voters either pay a poll tax or submit a certificate of residence at least six months before an election.

http://civilrights.uslegal.com/voting-rights/grandfather-clauses-literacy-t...

Literacy Tests were first used to discriminate against Irish-Catholic immigrants. They were used on both federal and state levels. The first Federal literary tests were employed in 1917. They had been proposed many times earlier but were always vetoed by Presidents or blocked by Congress members seeking immigrant votes.

Southern state legislatures employed literacy tests as early as the late 19th century. Whites were exempt from such early literacy tests (1890) if they could meet alternative requirements such as the grandfather clause. The grandfather clause stated that one was exempt from a literacy test if they have documentation of one of their relatives being eligible to vote before 1867. Although grandfather clauses were ruled unconstitutional in 1915's Guinn v. US literacy tests were still used.

A "reasonable interpretation" clause was implemented, giving voting registrars discretion in evaluating an applicant's performance on the test. This allowed registrars to pass illiterate whites who would have failed otherwise and to fail blacks regardless of their scores.

Some examples of questions used on a literary test include "How many bubbles are in a bar of soap?" and "What are the names of all 67 judges in the state of Alabama?".

After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 literacy tests were required to be administered fully in writing and only to individuals who have completed 6 years of formal education. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 suspended the use of literacy tests in states where less than 50% of the voting age residents were registered.

The Voting Rights Act prevents governments from imposing any voting qualifications or prerequisites, or from denying a US citizen their right to vote.

Section 5 prevents any area with a history of discriminatory voting practices from making any changes that will affect voting without first obtaining approval from the Attorney General. Some argue this is overreaching the amount of power the federal government. Regardless, Congress voted to extend the Act for 25 years with its original enforcement provisions left intact.

The Voting Rights Act authorized the federal government to take over registration of voters in areas where state officials have regularly prevented blacks and other minorities from registering to vote or cast their ballots through a usage of literacy tests, poll taxes, and intimidation tactics. This Act enforced provisions previously guaranteed in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments nearly a hundred years earlier.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965