ax unconstitutional); Carrington v. Rash, 380 U.S. 89, 85 S.Ct. 775, 13 L.Ed.2d 675 (1965) (holding unconstitutional law requiring civilian status to vote).
Although these cases dealt with laws directly restricting the exercise of the franchise, we find that these cases stand for the broader principal that all people have the right to be free from restrictions which would "pose the danger of denying some citizens any effective voice in the governmental affairs which would substantially affect their lives." Kramer, 395 U.S. at 627, 89 S.Ct. at 1889 (emphasis added). Thus, "[a]ny unjustified discrimination in determining who may participate in political affairs or in the selection of public officials undermines the legitimacy of representative government." Id. at 626, 89 S.Ct. at 1889 (emphasis added). As a consequence, any laws which "fence out" a group of voters because of a fear of their views or because of the way they vote, threatens the group's ability to "exercise ... rights so vital to the maintenance of democratic institutions." Carrington, 380 U.S. at 94, 85 S.Ct. at 779. We readily conclude that these pronouncements embody principals not simply confined to cases involving the right to vote.

2
A second line of cases are more directly on point as they deal not with a precondition or restriction on the right to vote, but rather with the value of one's vote; in other words, the right to have one's vote count as well as be counted. See Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 566, 84 S.Ct. 1362, 1384, 12 L.Ed.2d 506 (1964) ("[d]iluting the weight of votes because of place of residence impairs basic constitutional rights under the Fourteenth Amendment just as much as invidious discrimination based upon factors such as race"); New York City Board of Estimate v. Morris, 489 U.S. 688, 693, 109 S.Ct. 1433, 1438, 103 L.Ed.2d 717 (1989) ("each and every citizen has an inalienable right to full and effective participation in the political process"); Gray v. Sanders, 372 U.S. 368, 380, 83 S.Ct. 801, 808, 9 L.Ed.2d 821 (1963) 