The road to fair voting rights in America has been a long one. Review the timeline and background source to learn about how voting rights have either been limited or extended throughout U.S. history. Then, select and describe examples of events that illustrate expanding or limiting rights, paying particular attention to the constitutional amendments that have changed who has the right to vote.

Clarifying Questions

• What are voting rights?
• Why is the right to vote important?
• Who has always had the right to vote? Who has not?

What does it mean to describe? Watch this:

Vocabulary

• suffrage: the right to vote.
• Fifteenth Amendment: the amendment to the U.S. Constitution ratified in 1870 that prohibits depriving people of their voting rights on the basis of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude" and essentially extended voting rights to African American males.
• poll tax: a tax or fee charged for the act of voting, which deprives people who cannot afford the tax of the right to vote.
• literacy tests: written tests administered to prospective voters in many Southern states in the Jim Crow era; since many African Americans who had been freed from slavery were illiterate, literacy tests were designed to filter them out of the voting process.
• Nineteenth Amendment: the amendment to the U.S. Constitution ratified in 1920 that grants the vote to all women.
• Twenty-fourth Amendment: the amendment to the U.S. Constitution ratified in 1964 that prohibits the use of the poll tax.
• Twenty-sixth Amendment: the amendment to the U.S. Constitution ratified in 1971 that sets the voting age for citizens at age 18 or older.

Background Information

In a representative democracy like the United States, voting is a key aspect of civic participation. The right to vote gives U.S. citizens a say in who will represent them in government and consider their interests when public policy is made. Additionally, voting allows citizens to hold their elected officials accountable if they feel they are not representing their interests by voting new officials into office. Without the right to vote, citizens would have no influence over how and by whom they are governed.

In the early years of the United States, certain groups were prevented from voting because they did not meet eligibility requirements. Over time, specific steps have been taken to further extend voting rights to more and more citizens.