Kara Sears
The right to vote is commonly regarded as one of the most important American freedoms. However, the U.S. Constitution does not explicitly state that citizens have the right to vote. Instead, it gives Congress and the federal government the power to determine the times, places, and manner of congressional elections. The authority to protect voting rights stems from amendments adopted following the Civil War and legislation passed during the civil rights movement. These include the 15th Amendment, which prohibits restricting the right to vote due to race, the 19th Amendment, which prohibits denying the vote based on sex, and the 26th Amendment, which gives everyone 18 years and older the right to vote.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Voting rights | Initially restricted to property-owning or tax-paying white men |
| Citizens have a "constitutionally protected right to participate in elections," which is protected by the Equal Protection Clause | |
| The right to vote is not explicitly stated in the U.S. Constitution | |
| The right to vote is commonly regarded as one of the most important American freedoms | |
| The ability to have a role in elections has been contested since the U.S.'s founding | |
| The 15th Amendment (1870) extended voting rights to men of all races | |
| The 19th Amendment (1920) prohibited the states from denying the vote on the basis of sex | |
| The 24th Amendment (1964) sought to remove barriers to voting by prohibiting a poll tax | |
| The 26th Amendment (1971) lowered the voting age for all elections to 18 |
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What You'll Learn
The 15th Amendment (1870)
The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified on February 3, 1870, gave African American men the right to vote. The official text of the amendment is as follows:
> The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
The 15th Amendment was the last of the Reconstruction Amendments and was passed in the aftermath of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery. Before the war, most states restricted voting to white male property owners or taxpayers, although some states, like New Jersey, allowed free Black men and women of both races to vote provided they met property or tax requirements. In the years following the war, the Republican-dominated U.S. Congress passed the First Reconstruction Act, which outlined the establishment of new governments based on universal male suffrage in the South.
The writers of the 15th Amendment produced three different versions of the document. The first prohibited states from denying citizens the vote based on race, colour, or previous experience of slavery. The second prevented states from denying the vote based on literacy, property, or circumstances of birth. The third stated that all male citizens over the age of 21 had the right to vote. The first, most moderate version was the one ultimately accepted and ratified.
Despite the passage of the 15th Amendment, many African Americans in the Southern states were still unable to exercise their right to vote due to discriminatory practices and laws such as poll taxes, literary tests, and the activities of white supremacist vigilante groups like the Ku Klux Klan. By the late 1870s, the Southern Republican Party had vanished, and Southern states had effectively nullified the 15th Amendment, stripping Black citizens of their voting rights. It would take the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to enforce the 15th Amendment's protections and secure voting rights for adult citizens of all races and genders.
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The 19th Amendment (1920)
The 19th Amendment, passed by Congress on June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920, granted women the right to vote. The amendment was the culmination of a decades-long movement for women's suffrage in the United States, at both the state and national levels. It was also part of a worldwide movement towards women's suffrage and the wider women's rights movement.
Beginning in the 1800s, women organized, petitioned, and picketed to win the right to vote. Between 1878, when the amendment was first introduced in Congress, and 1920, champions of voting rights for women worked tirelessly, but the strategies for achieving their goal varied. Some pursued a strategy of passing suffrage acts in each state—nine western states adopted women's suffrage legislation by 1912. Others challenged male-only voting laws in court. Some suffragists used more confrontational tactics such as picketing, silent vigils, and hunger strikes.
By 1916, almost all of the major suffrage organizations were united behind the goal of a constitutional amendment. On May 21, 1919, the House of Representatives passed the amendment, and two weeks later, the Senate followed. When Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment on August 18, 1920, the amendment passed its final hurdle of obtaining the agreement of three-fourths of the states.
The 19th Amendment legally guarantees American women the right to vote and prohibits the United States and its states from denying the right to vote to citizens on the basis of sex.
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The 24th Amendment (1964)
The 24th Amendment to the US Constitution, ratified in 1964, abolished the poll tax for voters in federal elections. The poll tax had been used in some states to disenfranchise African Americans and poor white voters. The amendment was proposed by Congress on 27 August 1962 and submitted to the states on 24 September 1962, passing with the requisite two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate. The amendment was ratified on 23 January 1964, with President Lyndon B. Johnson calling it a "triumph of liberty over restriction" and "a verification of people's rights".
The poll tax was a requirement for voting, adopted by Southern states in the late 19th century, as part of a series of laws intended to exclude Black Americans from politics without violating the Fifteenth Amendment. The 24th Amendment prohibited any citizen from being denied their right to vote in any federal election due to their failure to pay any poll tax or other tax. This was an important step in removing barriers to voting, as poll taxes often prevented low-income citizens of all races from voting.
Five states retained a poll tax at the time of the amendment's ratification: Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia. Arkansas effectively repealed its poll tax for all elections in the November 1964 general election, several months after the amendment was ratified. The other four states retained their taxes, which were struck down in 1966 by the US Supreme Court in Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections. The Court ruled that poll taxes violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The 24th Amendment was a significant step in ensuring voting rights for all citizens, regardless of race or income level. It was part of a series of constitutional amendments and federal laws that have been passed to protect voting rights in the United States.
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The 26th Amendment (1971)
The 26th Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified on July 1, 1971, lowered the voting age of citizens from 21 to 18 years old. The official text of the Amendment is as follows:
> The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
The sentiment to lower the voting age in the US dates back to World War II. During the war, President Roosevelt lowered the draft age from 21 to 18. This led to a wave of dismay among young men who could fight and die for their country but could not participate in its democratic process. The slogan "Old enough to fight, old enough to vote" became widespread, eventually prompting a proposal for a constitutional amendment to grant 18-year-olds the right to vote.
In the 1960s and early 1970s, increasing public opposition to the Vietnam War further fuelled debates about lowering the voting age. With the US military draft age set at 18, many conscripted citizens were effectively ordered to fight in a conflict that they had no political authority to vote on. The 26th Amendment has faced a few legal challenges since its ratification, with arguments surrounding issues such as voter identification laws and the representation of out-of-town college students at the polls.
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The Voting Rights Act (1965)
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark federal statute in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on August 6, 1965, during the height of the civil rights movement. The Act was designed to enforce the voting rights protected by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and to secure the right to vote for racial minorities, especially in the South.
The Act outlawed discriminatory voting practices, such as literacy tests and poll taxes, that had been adopted in many southern states after the Civil War to deny African Americans the right to vote. These practices, along with other bureaucratic restrictions, intimidation, and violence, had limited African-American voter registration and political power. By the end of 1965, a quarter of a million new Black voters had been registered, one-third by federal examiners. The Voting Rights Act also required certain places to provide election materials in languages other than English and placed limits on states with a history of voter discrimination.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was the result of a long struggle for voting rights by civil rights activists, particularly in Selma, Alabama, where County Sheriff Jim Clark's police force violently resisted African-American voter registration efforts. The murder of voting rights activists in Mississippi and the attack on peaceful marchers in Selma gained national attention and persuaded President Johnson and Congress to initiate meaningful and effective national voting rights legislation. The Act was passed by the Senate on August 4, 1965, and signed into law by President Johnson on August 6, 1965.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been amended several times to expand its protections and has been hailed as the most effective piece of federal civil rights legislation ever enacted in the country. It has been readopted and strengthened multiple times, including in 1970, 1975, and 1982. However, in 2013, a Supreme Court decision struck down a key provision of the Act, and in 2021, another Supreme Court ruling substantially weakened it.
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Frequently asked questions
No, the US Constitution does not explicitly give citizens the right to vote. Instead, it states that anyone eligible to vote for the largest house of a state's legislature is also eligible to vote for members of the House of Representatives from that state.
The 15th Amendment (1870) extended voting rights to men of all races. The 19th Amendment (1920) prohibited the states from denying the vote on the basis of sex. The 24th Amendment (1964) sought to remove barriers to voting by prohibiting a poll tax. The 26th Amendment (1971) lowered the voting age for all elections to 18.
The Elections Clause gives Congress and the federal government the power to determine the "Times, Places, and Manner" of congressional elections.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 secured voting rights for adult citizens of all races and genders in the form of federal laws that enforced the amendments. It prohibited voter discrimination based on race, colour, or membership in a language minority group.
