VOTING RIGHTS HISTORY
The Constitution & Voting
The Constitution originally left it to the States to determine who could or could not vote. The only mention of voting rights was in Article 1, Section 2; where it states that “The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states, and the electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislature.” OR if you can vote for the lower house in the
State, you must be allowed to vote in US House elections.
White Male Voting
Between 1788 and the 1830s voting rights for white men were gradually increased. Property requirements were the biggest obstacle to white male suffrage. Many ‘Western States (at that time the West was Ohio, Kentucky, etc…) attempted to give poor whites voting rights to attract settlers. Property requirements for voting were nearly eliminated in all States by about 1830, which contributed to the election of Andrew Jackson to the Presidency in 1828.
African American Male Voting
After the civil war, the 15 th Amendment was ratified which was intended to guarantee African American men the right to vote. The Supreme Court narrowly defined the wording of the Amendment to define as listing 3 reasons that the right to vote could not be denied (race, ethnicity, or previous condition of servitude)
This did not guarantee a black man the right to vote. The right to vote could be denied due to inability to pass a literacy test, pay a poll tax, or if your grandfather had not been able to vote, you couldn’t vote. (grandfather clause)
African American faced fierce intimidation tactics that kept voter participation below 20% for black men in the South through the mid 20 th Century.
Fifteenth Amendment (1870)
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.

Women and the Vote
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Seneca Falls Convention 1848, Declaration of Sentiments and Elizabeth
Cady Stanton (the kickoff of the Women’s Suffrage Movement)
1869 Wyoming grants voting rights to women
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1872, Susan B. Anthony is arrested by a US Marshall, tried, and fined for voting in the Presidential election.
1918, more than half of the States in USA have female voting rights
19 th Amendment Passes (1920) o 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.
Other Key Voting Rights Expansions
1924 : Indian Citizenship Act – Defined Natives as citizens, granting voting right, States
slow to comply (New Mexico finally does in 1962)
1964: 24 th
Amendment – Right to vote can’t be denied due to inability to pay any tax
1965: Voting Rights Act of 1965 – No State can deny right to vote for inability to pass
literacy test, English fluency test, AND any State with a proven history of
discrimination may have it voter registration taken over by the US government.
1971: 26 th
Amendment – Right to vote can’t be denied due to age of anyone 18 or older.
ONLY 4 States had allowed 18 year olds to vote before 1970, many others had 21
year old voting ages.