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The Constitution
When the Constitution went into effect in 1789, the right to vote in the United States was restricted to white male property owners. -
Religious Qualifications
In the early 1800s the first stage of the struggle to extend voting rights came about. Religious qualifications, instituted in colonial days, started to quickly disappear. No State has had a religious test for voting since 1810. Then, one by one, States began to eliminate property ownership and tax payment qualifications. By the mid 1800s, almost all white adult males could vote in every State. -
The Civil War and the Ratification of the 15th Amendment
The second major effort to broaden the United States electorate followed the Civil War. The Fifteenth Amendment, ratified in 1870, was intended to protect any citizen from being denied the right to vote because race or color. For nearly another century, even after the ratification of the amendment, African Americans were systematically prevented from voting, and they remained the largest group of disenfranchised citizens in the nation's population. -
The 19th Amendment and Women's Suffrage
The Nineteenth Amendment prevented the denial of the right to vote because of gender. Its ratification in August of 1920 completed the third expansion of suffrage. Wyoming, while still a territory, had given women the right to vote in 1869. By 1920 more than half of the United States had followed that lead. -
The 23rd Amendment
The Twenty-third Amendment, passed in late March of 1961, added the voters of the District of Columbia to the presidential electorate. -
The 24th Amendment
The Twenty-fourth Amendment, ratified in January of 1964, eliminated the poll tax as well as any other tax as a condition for voting in any federal election. -
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of national legislation in the United States that outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the United States. -
The 26th Amendment
The fifth and the latest expansion of the electorate came with the adoption of the Twenty-sixth Amendment. It provides that no State can set the minimum age for voting at more than 18 years of age. Those 18 and older were given the right to vote by this amendment.
