AMERICAN
VOTING RIGHTS

The right to vote is the cornerstone of American democracy. But at the time of the nation’s conception, this fundamental freedom was reserved for only few. Generations of Americans have persisted in securing this right over and over again for every citizen, continuing to move towards a more free and equal society in which every citizen can cast their vote.

 

At the founding of the United States, only white, male, land owners had the right to vote. The first expansion of voting rights came with the 15th Amendment in 1870, which guaranteed all male citizens the right to vote regardless of race or property status. The second step was the 19th Amendment in 1920, which extended voting rights to women. Together, these two amendments established voting rights for all adult American citizens under the Constitution.  

 

However, not all were in favor of this progress and introduced Jim Crow laws to keep Black Americans from voting. The infamous Jim Crow laws tried to decrease Black voter participation by requiring citizens to own property, pay poll taxes, and pass literacy tests to vote. These discriminatory laws were rarely applied to poor, illiterate whites. 

 

But in the end, American principles of freedom, equality, and democracy won when the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965. This law outlawed discriminatory practices at polling places and required states to fully adhere to the 15th and 19th Amendments, which had been passed nearly a century before.

 

The Voting Rights Act worked—nowhere more obviously than in Mississippi, where the percentage of eligible Black voters registered skyrocketed from 7% in 1964 to 67% just five years later. Across the country, voter registration among Black Americans increased by an average of 19 percent in States that did not have literacy tests before the Act, and by 67 percent in States that had literacy tests before the Act. 

 

The Voting Rights Act was a powerful step in expanding the freedom to vote in the United States of America. And from there we just kept pushing ahead. 

 

In 1970, we decided as a nation to lower the voting age from 21 to 18 by passing the 26th Amendment. If 18 year olds were mature enough to fight for our country, they were mature enough to help choose its leaders. 

 

But recently, some politicians have tried to undermine the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by making it much harder for some American citizens to vote. They have tried to make lines in “undesirable” polling places excessively long, they have tried to block citizens from accessing transportation to arrive at their polling places, and they have even tried to make it a crime to pass out water to people waiting in the sun. 

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