" ... that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
- Closing lines of Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" (November 19, 1863)
Many Americans have historically been denied the vote in this country ...
Voting rights are one of the most important rights that anyone can have in a free country. They are a right by which many others can be defended, and the essence of popular government in democracies and republics. But voting rights were long restricted in this country to white male citizens who had private property, and who were 21 years of age or older. They could be denied for failure to pay poll taxes, for having ancestors that had been enslaved, or for any number of other things that were used as restrictions on the right to vote.
Frederick Douglass, a notable advocate of African American voting rights
... and the changes in these policies were made somewhat gradually over a period of decades
It took a long time for this situation to be rectified, and the changes brought herein were made somewhat gradually over a period of some decades. Thus, it would seem appropriate to review them now, and show what categories are forbidden to be used as legal grounds for denying people the right to vote. (I should acknowledge that some would classify the Twenty-Third Amendment as a voting rights amendment as well; but since this amendment is more relevant to the electoral college than it is to individual suffrage, I have saved that discussion for another post. I will focus this post instead on the four amendments about voting rights at the individual level.)
Martin Luther King, another notable advocate of African American voting rights
Certain categories cannot be used as grounds for disenfranchisement, such as ...
Even under contemporary law, the right to vote may be denied to some who have been convicted of crimes. Nonetheless, there are certain demographic categories that cannot be used as grounds for disenfranchisement, as the following amendments show:
"I voted" sticker
Race, color, or "previous condition of servitude"
"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. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." (Source: Fifteenth Amendment, ratified 1870)
Freed blacks voting in New Orleans, 1867 (during the Reconstruction Era)
Sex (or in other words, "gender")
"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. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." (Source: Nineteenth Amendment, ratified 1920)
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, circa 1900
Age (for people "18 years of age or older")
"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. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." (Source: Twenty-Sixth Amendment, ratified 1971)
Picture from the Vietnam War, where the military service of 18-year-olds was cited as a reason to give them the vote
Poll taxes (or any other kind of taxes)
The Fourteenth Amendment (ratified 1868) had implied that the right to vote could be denied (or otherwise abridged) "for participation in rebellion, or other crime." (Source: Section 2 of the amendment) But a later amendment said that "The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary election 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 poll tax or any other tax. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." (Source: Twenty-Fourth Amendment, ratified 1964)
Poll tax receipt - Louisiana, 1917
Right to vote can still be taken away as punishment for various other kinds of crimes
Failure to pay a poll tax - or any other tax - would be a crime under the meaning of the law, and would thus have been considered just grounds for disenfranchisement under the Fourteenth Amendment in earlier times. But the Twenty-Fourth Amendment undercut this clause for at least this one kind of crime, and so not all crimes are eligible for this particular kind of punishment. This limits the extent to which this kind of punishment may be used. This is as it should be, and disenfranchisement is thus only used for certain other kinds of crimes that are more serious than tax evasion.
Prison inmates in an Orleans Parish Prison yard, 2012
Right to vote in American elections can also be denied to people who are not American citizens
Citizenship is another allowable grounds for withholding the right to vote. The previously-mentioned voting rights amendments specify that they only protect the right of "citizens of the United States" to vote. Thus, these voting rights amendments all implicitly authorize the denial of United States suffrage to people who are not "citizens of the United States." However, people may still vote in the elections of their own countries, when their own local laws allow them to do so. For those who cannot vote in the places that they've come from (or even for those who can), there is the option of becoming a United States citizen by going through channels. The original Constitution also says that the Congress shall have the power to "establish an uniform rule of naturalization" (Source: Article 1, Section 8, Paragraph 4). "Naturalization" is just another word for becoming a citizen. Thus, the Constitution puts this process firmly under federal control. The Fourteenth Amendment (ratified in 1868) also clarifies that "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." (Source: Section 1 of the amendment) Thus, naturalized citizens automatically become citizens of "the State wherein they reside" as well, allowing them to vote in state and local elections as much as federal elections. This applies to naturalized citizens as much as birth citizens.
Office of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services – Atlanta, Georgia
Thus, there are certain categories that are forbidden to be used as legal grounds for denying people the right to vote, and there are certain other categories that are allowed as legal grounds (at least sometimes) as a punishment for crime - or when people are not American citizens. Other things, like insanity or illiteracy, are neither explicitly forbidden nor explicitly allowed as grounds for disenfranchisement; and it is up to the people to decide their proper status under American law.
Editorial cartoon about literacy tests from Harper's Weekly, 1879 (where white Southerners with bad spelling praise the literacy tests)
But most Americans can (and do) have the right to vote today, which is as it should be
Whatever one's views on these special cases, though, voting rights are still one of the most important rights that anyone can have in a free country. We are right to be suspicious of anyone that would take from us our right to vote, and it is one of the most jealously guarded freedoms for this (and other) reasons.
Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence
Governments derive their just powers from "the consent of the governed" ...
As the Declaration of Independence well put it, "all men are created equal ... [and] they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." (Source: The Declaration of Independence [July 4, 1776])
John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence
... and this consent can never be given without the legal right to vote
Governments thus derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and this consent can never be given without the legal right to vote.
Martin Luther King, Jr. quote:
“When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro [his word, not mine] spiritual, 'Free at last! free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!' ”
- Closing lines of the "I Have A Dream" speech (August 28, 1963)
If you liked this post, you might also like:
A review of Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" (covers the antislavery Thirteenth Amendment)
The Fourteenth Amendment is something of a mixed bag ...
A review of "Reconstruction: The Second Civil War" (PBS)
A review of "Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony"
A review of PBS's "Citizen King" (Martin Luther King. Jr.)
Part of a series about
The Constitution
Introduction
Influences on the Constitution
Hobbes and Locke
Public and private property
Criticisms of social contract theory
Responses to the criticisms
Hypothesized influences
Magna Carta
Sir Edward Coke
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
Massachusetts Body of Liberties
Sir William Blackstone
Virginia Declaration of Rights
The Declaration of Independence (1776)
Representative government
Polybius
Baron de Montesquieu
Articles of Confederation
The Constitution itself, and the story behind it
Convention at Philadelphia
States' rights
The Congress
Congress versus the president
Powers of Congress
Elected officials
Frequency of elections
Representation
Indigenous policies
Slavery
The presidency
Impeachment and removal
The courts
Amendment process
Debates over ratification
The "Federalist Papers"
Who is "Publius"?
Debates over checks & balances
The Bill of Rights
Policies on religion
Freedom of speech and press
Right to bear arms
Rights to fair trial
Rights of the accused
Congressional pay
Abolishing slavery
Backup plans
Voting rights
Epilogue
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