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15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment to the United States constitution, allows all men, regard less of race, color, or previous servitude to vote. This amendment was quite revolutionary because at the time that this was passed, the civil war had just ended, and this allowed the newly freed slaves and all other African Americans in the future to vote in elections.
Constitution Center -
Guinn vs US
After the civil war had ended and the reconstruction amendments were passed, measures in the United States were enacted to prevent the newly freed African Americans from voting, but allowed for white people to vote. These included literacy tests, and the grandfather clause. The case Guinn vs US abolished these measures allowing for more people to vote.
US Supreme Court Center -
19th Amendment
The 19th Amendment to the constitution allowed women the right to vote. This was the culmination of over a century of women's rights activism. This was not only a big step forward for American politics, as now almost double the amount of people could vote, but also for the women's rights movement as a whole
Constitution Center -
Indian citizenship act
The Indian citizenship act grants citizenship to any Native Americans born in the US. Because of this, and the 15th amendment, this allowed Natives the right to vote. However, some states stilled barred them from voting because voting was still governed by state law. This was changed in 1957 and now all Natives have the right to vote
Library of Congress -
Reynolds v. Sims
In 1961, the division of the electoral districts in the state of Alabama left population very uneven. In the case Reynolds v. Sims, this was challenged under the argument that it violated the 14th amendment. The result of this case was state legislative districts should be approximately equal, so each representative has equal amounts of power.
Oyez -
24th Amendment
The 24th Amendment abolished the use of poll taxes in elections. In the past, many states would place a poll tax on elections, meaning that a person would have to pay a certain fee if they wanted to vote. This was a way for rich people to prevent poor people from voting in elections. It would cause very low voter turnout. After it was abolished, everyone was now able to vote without having to pay.
Constitution Center -
Voting Rights Act (1965)
The voting rights act prohibits racial discrimination practices that many southern states had adopted after the civil war. Some of these obstacles included poll taxes (abolished by the 24th amendment), literacy tests, or simply just racism, sexism and other abuse.
National Archives -
26th Amendment
The 26th Amendment lowers the voting age in the Unite States to 18 years old. At the time the idea for the amendment was gaining popularity, the Vietnam war was in full swing. Because the age to be put into the draft was 18, people began to use the slogan "Old enough to fight, old enough to vote". This lead to the voting age to be lowered to 18.
Constitution Center -
Military and Overseas Empowerment Act (UOCAVA)
The Military and Overseas Empowerment Act or UOCAVA allows the family of soldiers and marines stationed overseas to preform absentee voting for them. This is a major step forward for legal protection of our countries soldiers.
FVAP -
Shelby County v Holder
The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, and ensured that no one would be denied the equal right to vote based on race. Alabama challenged the part of the act where it said that states must get their voting rules approved because they thought it was unconstitutional. It was ruled that the part of the act that determines the jurisdiction was unconstitutional, therefore rendering this useless.
[BC Center of Justice(9https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/court-cases/shelby-county-v-holder)