The Voting Rights Act -- forty years later.

The article presents information related to the Voting Rights Act of the U.S. Until the law required that all citizens be enfranchised, a unique variety of devious means were used to keep African Americans from voting. There were tests of literacy, income, and knowledge of obscure, trivial facts. In 2002, the federal Help America Vote Act was passed; its purpose was to preclude problems with voting machines and punch-out ballots, or ballots marked with pencil. The next innovation was the touch screen voting machine that leaves no paper trail.