U.S. Voting Rights

Yesterday's post, U.S. Citizenship, covered how vague the U.S. Constitution was originally on who was a citizen. Similarly, the right to vote in the U.S. was left equally vague. Article I Section 2 of the constitution has the statement:

The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States

And Section 3 of Article I makes the statement:

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof

The time, place and manner of elections, for both Senators and Representatives, was left completely up to the individual states. The members of Senate were chose by the Legislature of each state until the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913.

For the election of President, Article II Section 1 of the Constitution laid out the basis for the electoral college. To me, the surprising part was the people didn't necessarily get to elect a president. Instead, Article II Section 1, details

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress

So, how electors to elect a president were established was left up to the individual states.

The constitutional right to vote was not established until after the Civil War with the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870. The Fifteenth Amendment states:

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.

With the basic tenants of the constitution in place citizens now have the right to vote, but actually only for Members of the House of Representatives. Although worded as though all citizens had the right to vote, the decisions on who could vote was actually left to individual states and resulted in the exclusion of many black and most, if not all, female voters. It was not until the Voting Rights Act of 1965, were all impediments to black citizens voting eliminated.

The Nineteenth Amendment, ratified in 1920, finally tore down the barriers for the right to vote for women. The Nineteenth Amendment was very similar to the Fifteenth stating:

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 sex.

Still leaving the details of voting to the states, the laws in each state had to be modified to actually allow women to vote.

Economic barriers were broken down with the ratification of the Twenty-fourth Amendment in 1962. Prior to 1962, individual states could establish poll taxes eliminating the ability of those that could not pay the tax from the ability to vote. The Twenty-fourth Amendment states:

The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.

Constitutionally there was originally no limitation on the age at which one can be allowed to vote. The legal age for voting until 1971 when the Twenty-sixth Amendment was ratified had been 21. The age of 21 was not a constitutional directive, remember the Constitution leaves the details of voting up to the individual states. The Twenty-sixth Amendment states:

The right of citizens of the United States, who are 18 years of age or older, to vote, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of age.

With the original Constitution, several amendments, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 we now have our current election system. Our popular votes elect Members of Congress and the Electoral College elects our President. Constitutionally, the only voting rights we are granted, even then in a vague way, is the ability to elect Members of Congress based on popular vote. Notice that the individual states still have the control over how Electors are selected for the election of a president. Could you imagine the uproar if a state decide to select electors through the state legislature rather than a popular vote.