Voting rights in the United States | |
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 Congress overrode Andrew Johnson's veto to pass the 1867 District of Columbia Suffrage Act (Thomas Nast, Harper's Weekly, March 16, 1867) | |
| Demographics | |
| Poll taxes | Abolished 1964 |
| Literacy tests abolished | Abolished 1965 for federal elections |
| Minimum voting age | 18 in most jurisdictions |
| Preregistration age | 16 in 41 states and D.C.; 17 in 4 states; 17.5 or older in 4 states |
| Felon voting status | Individual petitions required in 2 states; circumstantial in 5 states; restrictions under probation in 20 states; restrictions under parole in 2 states; unrestricted after prison release in 18 states and 2 territories; unrestricted in Maine, Vermont, Puerto Rico and D.C. |
| Noncitizen voting | Banned in federal and all state elections, allowed in some jurisdictions |
| Voter registration | |
| Voter registration required | All states except in North Dakota |
| Online voter registration | Implemented fully in 40 states, D.C. and Guam; in-process in Oklahoma and Maine; implemented in Texas for those renewing licenses |
| Automatic voter registration | Implemented in 15 states and D.C.; in-process in 6 states |
| Same-day registration | same-day and early-voting registration in 8 states and D.C.; same-day only in 9 states; early-voting only in 2 states; same-day and early-voting registration in-process in 2 states |
| Partisan affiliation | Partisan registration in 31 states and D.C.; nonpartisan registration in 18 states |
| Voting process | |
| Polling place identification requirements | photo ID required in 8 states; photo ID requested in 9 states; non-photo ID required in 3 states; non-photo ID requested in 13 states |
| Postal ballot status | no-excuse in 34 states (all-postal in 7 states) |
| Permanent list postal ballot status | 10 states |
| Election method | First-past-the-post plurality in 44 states; two-round systems in 5 states; ranked-choice voting in Maine |
| Voter powers | |
| Redistricting system | 12 states with nonpartisan or bipartisan commissions for congressional redistricting; 16 states with commissions for legislative redistricting; Iowa uses nonpartisan staff |
| Prison-based redistricting | 10 states prohibit prison redistricting |
| Ballot question rights | Legislative referral in 49 states and D.C. (26 states with some form of ballot initiative by petition) |
| Part of the Politics series |
| Voting |
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Voting rights, specifically enfranchisement and disenfranchisement of different groups, have been a moral and political issue throughout United States history.
Eligibility to vote in the United States is governed by the United States Constitution and by federal and state laws. Several constitutional amendments (the Fifteenth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-sixth specifically) require that voting rights of U.S. citizens cannot be abridged on account of race, color, previous condition of servitude, sex, or age (18 and older); the constitution as originally written did not establish any such rights during 1787–1870, except that if a state permitted a person to vote for the "most numerous branch" of its state legislature, it was required to permit that person to vote in elections for members of the United States House of Representatives.[1] In the absence of a specific federal law or constitutional provision, each state is given considerable discretion to establish qualifications for suffrage and candidacy within its own respective jurisdiction; in addition, states and lower level jurisdictions establish election systems, such as at-large or single member district elections for county councils or school boards. Thus, the enfranchisement or disenfranchisement in one state may be stricter or more lenient than in another state.[2] Beyond qualifications for suffrage, rules and regulations concerning voting (such as the poll tax) have been contested since the advent of Jim Crow laws and related provisions that indirectly disenfranchised racial minorities.
A historic turning point was the 1964 Supreme Court case Reynolds v. Sims that ruled both houses of all state legislatures had to be based on electoral districts that were approximately equal in population size, under the "one man, one vote" principle.[3][4][5] The Warren Court's decisions on two previous landmark cases—Baker v. Carr (1962) and Wesberry v. Sanders (1964)—also played a fundamental role in establishing the nationwide "one man, one vote" electoral system.[6][7]
In cases of county or municipal elections, winner-take-all systems in at-large districts have been repeatedly challenged as diluting the voting power of racial minorities, violating the Voting Rights Act. Generally the solution to such violations has been to adopt single-member districts (SMDs), but systems of proportional representation such as the single non-transferable vote and cumulative voting have also been used since the late 20th century to correct for dilution of voting power and enable minorities to elect candidates of their choice.
Citizens living in U.S. territories cannot vote for president of the United States.[8] However, those residing in the District of Columbia can vote for president as a result of the Twenty-third Amendment.
- ^ U.S. Const. Art. I, s. 2, cl. 1.
- ^ Gibson, Brittany (May 28, 2020). "The Many Varieties of Voter Suppression". The American Prospect. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
- ^ "One Person, One Vote | The Constitution Project". www.theconstitutionproject.com. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
- ^ Smith, J. Douglas (July 26, 2015). "The Case That Could Bring Down 'One Person, One Vote'". The Atlantic. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
- ^ Goldman, Ari L. (November 21, 1986). "One Man, One Vote: Decades of Court Decisions". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
- ^ "Baker v. Carr". Oyez. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
- ^ "Wesberry v. Sanders". Oyez. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
- ^ "Watch John Oliver Cast His Ballot for Voting Rights for U.S. Territories". Time. Retrieved August 13, 2019.