The Constitution never states a general right to vote. Instead, it bars specific forms of discrimination, and the right has expanded through amendments, federal laws, and court decisions, often after long struggles. It has also been restricted, most notably during the Jim Crow era, when Southern states used legal devices and violence to exclude Black voters for nearly a century.
This guide traces voting rights from the founding to the present and explains the laws and controversies that shape voting today.
In Shelby County v. Holder in 2013, the Supreme Court struck down the formula that determined which jurisdictions needed preclearance, ending federal review of voting changes. In Brnovich v. DNC in 2021, it upheld Arizona voting restrictions and set a demanding standard for Section 2 challenges to voting rules. In Louisiana v. Callais in April 2026, it struck down a majority-Black congressional district and limited when Section 2 can justify race-conscious districts. Earlier, in Crawford v. Marion County in 2008, it upheld Indiana's voter ID law. Supporters say the rulings reflect how much the South has changed, while critics say they leave minority voters with few federal protections.
States vary widely on voter ID, mail voting, early voting, same-day registration, and voter roll maintenance. Most states restrict voting by people with felony convictions in some way, from losing the vote only while incarcerated to longer bans, while Maine, Vermont, and the District of Columbia allow voting from prison. Residents of U.S. territories cannot vote for President. The House passed the SAVE America Act in February 2026 to require documentary proof of citizenship to register, which supporters say protects election integrity and opponents say would block millions of eligible citizens who lack ready documents, and on June 4, 2026 the Senate rejected it 48 to 50 when it was offered as an amendment. Courts also blocked a 2025 executive order on the same subject.
The 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, barred denying the vote on account of race, and Black men voted and held office across the South during Reconstruction. After federal troops withdrew in 1877, Southern states adopted poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, white primaries, and intimidation that cut Black registration to a small fraction. The Supreme Court struck down the grandfather clause in 1915 and the white primary in Smith v. Allwright in 1944, but other barriers remained into the 1960s.
The 19th Amendment guaranteed women the vote in 1920 after a decades-long suffrage movement. The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 made Native Americans citizens, though some states barred them from voting until 1948 or later. The 23rd Amendment in 1961 gave District of Columbia residents electoral votes for President, the 24th in 1964 banned poll taxes in federal elections, and the Court extended that ban to state elections in 1966. The 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to 18 in 1971, during the Vietnam War.
The Constitution let each state decide who could vote, tying federal elections to the qualifications for the state's largest legislative chamber. Most states initially required property ownership or tax payments, and by the 1850s most had dropped them for white men. Women could vote in New Jersey until 1807, free Black men voted in some states, and most states barred noncitizens only gradually, with the last ending noncitizen voting in 1926.
After violence against marchers in Selma, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It suspended literacy tests, sent federal examiners to register voters, required covered states to preclear voting changes, and barred discriminatory practices nationwide. Black registration in the South rose dramatically within a few years. Later amendments added protections for language minorities in 1975 and a results test in 1982, which the Court applied to redistricting in Thornburg v. Gingles. Other laws followed, including the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and the Help America Vote Act of 2002.
See how district lines affect representation in redistricting and gerrymandering explained, learn who administers elections in who runs elections in America, or read about all the amendments in all 27 amendments.